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BIRDS OF THE WORLD 




AMERICAN EAGLE (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), photographed on the Fourth of July 
in the National Zoological Park, Washington, D. C. The bird that serves as the 
national emblem of the United States is now becoming rare and is in some dan- 
ger ot complete extermination. It is a harmless and inoffensive species that de¬ 
serves complete protection. 





BIRDS OF THE 
WORLD 


AN ILLUSTRATED NATURAL HISTORY 

PREPARED BY WORKERS 
OF THE FEDERAL WRITERS’ PROJECT 
OF THE WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION 
IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

WITH ART WORK BY 

THE WPA FEDERAL ART PROJECT IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

SPONSORED BY THE GUILDS’ COMMITTEE 
FOR FEDERAL WRITERS’ PUBLICATIONS, INC. 



JUNIOR PRESS BOOKS 


ALBER HITMAN 


& :o 

CHICAGO 



1938 


COPYRIGHT, 1938, BY THE GUILDS’ COMMITTEE FOR 
FEDERAL WRITERS’ PUBLICATIONS, INC. 


Q \— & 7 £ 

/ £4- 


Franklin P. Adams, Bruce Bliven, Herschel Brickell, Van Wyck 
Brooks, Henry S. Canby, Malcolm Cowley, Morris Ernst, 
Clifton Fadiman, Lewis Gannett, Travis Hoke, James 
Weldon Johnson, Rockwell Kent, Alfred Kreymborg, 

Louis Kronenberger, Burns Mantle, Margaret 
Marshall, Burton Rascoe, Ralph Thompson, 

Irita Van Doren, Mark Van Doren. 





PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
BY J. J. LITTLE AND IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK 


RFP 


©ClA 121819 


e />- O'S '3i 



PREFACE 


In view of the fact that over 10,000 species of birds are known to inhabit 
the earth today, it is not strange that many of them are almost unknown, 
even to bird experts. Years of travel and painstaking study would certainly 
be necessary if any one individual were to try to list even the major charac¬ 
teristics of every species of feathered creature in North and South America, 
Europe, Asia, and the Indo-Australian and Polar regions. 

The editors of BIRDS OF THE WORLD have not attempted to de¬ 
scribe all birds existing today, or even to list them. This book is not intended 
to be a field key to birds on the wing, or a dictionary of every known 
species. Great care has been taken, however, to include birds which are truly 
representative of the principal orders, typical of their kind, and, above all, 
interesting in themselves. 

Birds, after all, are not all of a kind. The difference between a wood¬ 
pecker and an ostrich, to take an example at random, is fully as great as 
the distinction between two such mammals as a monkey and a mouse. 
Actually, the only outstanding characteristic which all birds have in com¬ 
mon is their feathers. And even their feathers are not put to the same 
uses. The wing feathers of some birds are used for flight; others, like the 
penguin, don’t fly at all, but do use their wings with equal skill in swimming. 

From the strictly scientific point of view, birds are really “glorified 
reptiles,” and they still possess many of the characteristics of their reptilian 
ancestors. They lay eggs, like their forefathers, and the scale-like skin on 
their feet and legs is a feature which birds still have in common with many 
of their crawling cousins. Feathers themselves, in fact, are really modified 
scales, and they are moulted occasionally just as snakes shed their skins. 

In many ways, however, birds can be proud of the progress they have 
made from their lowly beginning. Even man, who only recently learned to 
fly after hundreds of years of trying, has not been able to make an airplane 


v 





FOREWORD 


Birds of the World is one of the publications written by members of the 
Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. Designed 
primarily to give useful employment to needy unemployed writers and 
research workers, this project has utilized their experience and abilities in 
the preparation for the American people of a portrait of America—its 
history, folklore, scenery, cultural backgrounds, social and economic trends, 
and racial factors. 

Many books and brochures are being written for the American Guide 
Series. As they appear in increasing numbers we hope that the public will 
come to appreciate more fully not only the unusual scope of this under¬ 
taking, but also the devotion shown by the workers—from the humblest field 
worker to the most accomplished editor engaged in the final critical revision 
of the manuscript. The Federal Writers’ Project, directed by Henry G. 
Alsberg, is in the Division of Women’s and Professional Projects under 
Ellen S. Woodward, Assistant Administrator. 



Harry L. Hopkins 
Administrator 






CONTENTS 


Ostriches 

FLIGHTLESS LAND BIRDS 



18 

Rheas . 




20 

Cassowaries 




22 

Emus 




24 

Kiwis 




26 

Penguins 

PENGUINS 

. 

. 

30 

DIVING BIRDS 

Great Northern Diver ..... 



34 

Auks 




36 

Grebes . 




38 

Albatrosses . 

ALBATROSS GROUP 



42 

Shearwaters . 

. 

• 

• 

44 

Pelicans 

PELICAN GROUP 



48 

Boobies 


. 

. 

50 

Cormorants . 


. 

. 

52 

Man-o-War Birds 


• 

• 

54 

Herons . 

WADING BIRDS 



58 

Bitterns 

. 

. 

. 

60 

Storks . 

. 

. 

. 

62 

Flamingoes 

. 

• 


64 


xi 
















DUCKS, GEESE AND SWANS 



Mallard Ducks 

. . . . . . • 


68 

Canada Geese 

. 

. 

70 

Swans . 

BIRDS OF PREY 

* 

72 

Condors 

* ...... 

# 

76 

Secretary Birds 

. . . . . . . 

. 

78 

Hawks . 

. 


80 

Eagles . 

GAME BIRDS 

* 

82 

Megapodes 



86 

Grouse . 



88 

Pheasants 



90 

Peafowl 



92 

Jungle Fowl . 



94 

Wild Turkey . 

CRANES AND RAILS 


96 

Cranes . 

. 


100 

Rails 

JACANAS, PLOVERS AND GULLS 

• 

102 

Mexican Jacana 

. 


106 

Crocodile Birds 

. 


108 

Herring Gulls 

PIGEONS AND DOVES 


110 

Mourning Dove 

CUCKOOS 

• 

114 

Cuckoo 

PARROTS AND MACAWS 

• 

118 

Parrots 

. 


122 

Macaws 

xii 


124 












Great Horned Owl 
Screech Owl . 


OWLS 


128 

130 


OIL-BIRDS, FROGMOUTHS AND WHIP-POOR-WILLS 


Oil-Birds 


134 

Frogmouths . 


136 

Whip-Poor-Will 


138 


SWIFTS AND HUMMINGBIRDS 


Chimney Swifts 

. 

142 

Hummingbirds 

. 

144 


TROGONS 


Quetzal 

. 

148 


KINGFISHERS, HORNBILLS, TOUCANS 


Kingfishers . 

AND WOODPECKERS 




152 

Hornbills 

. 

. 

. 

. 

154 

Toucans 

. 

. 

. 

. 

156 

Woodpeckers 

. 

• 

• 

• 

158 

Lyre Bird 

PERCHING BIRDS 




162 

Cassiques 





164 

Crows . 





166 

Blue Jay 





168 

Bower Birds . 





170 

Birds of Paradise . 





172 

House Wren . 





174 

Thrushes and Robins 





176 

Cedar Waxwing 





178 

Vireos . 





180 

Starlings 





182 

Warblers 





184 


xiii 











Weaver Birds 186 

Sparrows ......... 188 

Blackbirds ......... 190 

Orioles .......... 192 


Index . 

Map of World 


197 

208 


BIRDS OF THE WORLD 



FLIGHTLESS LAND BIRDS 

(Ostriches, Rheas, Cassowaries, Emus and Kiwis) 

These are believed to be descended from primitive birds that were originally 
able to fly, the stock branching off from the main line of descent at a very 
early period in evolutionary history. Many are fast approaching extinction, 
a fate which their gigantic cousin, the moa, met some five hundred years 
ago. The moa of New Zealand attained the height of twelve feet. Another 
extinct relative, the elephant bird or roc of Madagascar, though it did not 
exceed the height of the ostrich, was remarkable for its massive limbs and 
great eggs which measured nearly thirty-four inches in circumference. Such 
an egg would hold more than two gallons or equal the contents of one hun¬ 
dred and fifty hen’s eggs. 

Except for the kiwi, the flightless birds are large and heavy, with 
powerful legs and small heads. Their wings are degenerate, consisting of 
one or two stubby fingers. In several cases, notably the emu and the ostrich, 
the toes terminate in a strong claw, capable of inflicting a serious wound. 
Nearly all of them lack the keel, typical of flying birds. The sternum or 
breastbone is flat or raftlike, and this accounts for the name Ratitae (Latin 
ratis, raft). 

Their plumage differs from that of their flying relatives. Flying birds 
have distinct and firm feathers arranged in definite areas of the body, par¬ 
ticularly the wings and tail. Flightless birds have a soft and fluffy coat that 
covers the body uniformly. 

Ostriches: South African Ostrich. 

Rheas: Great-billed Rhea. 

White Rhea. 

Cassowaries: Common Cassowary. 

Violet-necked Cassowary. 

Emu. 

Kiwi. 


Emus: 

Kiwis: 


17 


OSTRICHES 


In addition to being the largest and most powerful of present-day birds, 
the ostrich is one of the swiftest of all land animals. Its short wings, though 
useless in flight, help lift its three hundred pounds, enabling it to speed 
over the desert at a rate of sixty miles an hour. This speed, however, does 
not avail the ostrich much, for the giant bird runs in a circle when pursued 
by the hunters and jackals which constitute its chief enemies. Despite this 
phenomenal stupidity, it does not, as popularly supposed, bury its head in 
the sand as a means of hiding. Its chief defense lies in the force of its peck 
and in its kick, which is said to be far mightier than that of a mule. 

Ostriches go about the desert wastes in groups of from three to a dozen, 
each male usually accompanied by a harem of three to four wives. The 
wide variety of the ostrich diet is well known. They feed on grasses, seeds, 
fruits, insects, small mammals, lizards and snakes, and are fond of salt. 
In captivity their appetites are perverse. Ostriches sometimes succumb to 
their indiscriminate appetites. An autopsy performed on one female speci¬ 
men named Wilhelmina at the Tropical Zoological Gardens at Miami, 
Florida, showed that its stomach contained a startling variety of objects that 
have been enumerated in the Preface. 

Though timid and suspicious by nature, they frequently herd with 
zebras and antelopes and maintain peaceful relations with these creatures. 

In the mating season, the males, which average eight feet in height, 
utter a loud boom-boom to impress their wives. In this they appear to be 
successful, for the combined harem will lay from forty to fifty eggs, weigh¬ 
ing some three pounds apiece. The eggs are laid in a common nest, which 
is a slight hollow scratched out in the warm sand. The male assumes his 
share of the responsibility for hatching out the eggs, sitting on them all 
night. During the day he is relieved by one of his wives, but remains nearby. 
Ostriches exercise extreme care in concealing their eggs and go to great 
lengths to avoid being seen going to and from their nests. Only about twenty 
eggs are hatched normally, the period of incubation being six weeks; some 
of those remaining are used for food by the chicks, who, though able to run 
about as soon as they are born, have not their parents’ hardy stomachs. 

18 



jSew York Zoological Society. 

SOUTH AFRICAN OSTRICH (Struthio australis). 
Height: 8 feet. Weight: 300 pounds. Range: South 
Africa with related species in Central and North Africa, 
Arabia and Palestine. 

Captive ostriches swallow golf balls, whole oranges 
and apples, and other less digestible objects to the dis¬ 
may of their keepers. In the wild they feed on vegeta¬ 
tion and small animals. Contrary to popular opinion, 
ostriches don’t hide their heads in the sand. 



EGGS OF OSTRICH , CHICKEN , AND 
HUMMINGBIRD COMPARED. 
African natives relish ostrich eggs, 
a single one of which contains as 
much substance as two dozen 
hen’s eggs. They use the empty 
shells as pots. These shells are 
sometimes eight inches long and 
one-sixteenth of an inch thick. 



RHEAS 


Rheas, popularly known as American ostriches or nandus, roam over the 
pampas of South America in groups of from four to thirty. 

They resemble the ostrich superficially, but are distinguished from 
it by their smaller size, their better developed wings and the fact that they 
have three toes instead of two. The rhea’s head and neck are covered with 
feathers. 

Rheas live on grasses, seeds and berries. They rely for their safety 
chiefly upon their swift legs and keen sense of sight. When the rhea is pur¬ 
sued, it often escapes by squatting suddenly among the low gray bushes 
of the pampas, which blend perfectly with its own slate gray coloration. 
Somewhat more intelligent than the ostrich, rheas are capable of running 
in a straight line, but frequently fall victims to their insatiable curiosity. 
When cornered, they defend themselves with vigorous kicks. 

The Indians capture rheas by means of the bola, a long leather thong 
to the opposite ends of which small lead weights are attached. When the 
weights are skillfully thrown, the bird’s legs become entwined in the thong. 
Until the passage of protective legislation in Argentina, rheas were killed 
in great numbers for their skins, which were made up into native rugs, and 
their feathers, which became brooms. Today these once common birds are 
seldom seen. The enemies of the rhea include the puma and the wild dog. 

Each female rhea lays about a dozen creamy yellow eggs in an ex¬ 
cavation dug by her mate. As three or four females are attached to one 
male, who cares for their combined output, the nest often contains from 
thirty to sixty eggs. When the male has begun to sit, he will drive away 
females who wish to lay more eggs, thus forcing them to scatter their sup¬ 
plementary eggs at random over the pampas. On a hot day these eggs are 
highly explosive and superstition has it that they are a serious menace to 
the unwary traveler, but it must be said that there is no true evidence 
in support of this alarming belief. 

When not molested, rheas approach houses and become as friendly 
and tame as domestic animals. 


20 


New York Zoological Society. 

GREAT-BILLED RHEA AND EGGS (Rhea Americana). Length: 4 y 2 feet. Range: 
South American pampas from Paraguay to Patagonia, with a related species in 
Southern Brazil. 



Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 


WHITE RHEA (Rhea 

ROTHSCHlLDl). Length: 
3 feet. Range: Central 
Brazil to Patagonia. 

Few of these birds are 
left today because some¬ 
one invented the feather 
duster, which employs 
the fluffy wing feathers 
of the unfortunate rhea. 
The albinistic variety is 
now almost extinct; sur¬ 
viving birds are con¬ 
fined almost exclusively 
to rhea farms. 


21 





CASSOWARIES 


The cassowary is one of the flightless birds inhabiting forests. Though it is 
extremely wary and usually most active after dusk, its presence is easily 
detected by its harsh guttural note, which can be heard several miles away. 

Cassowaries are able to leap and bound with great speed through the 
thickest jungle. In this they are aided by a tall smooth helmet of horn, 
which protects their heads and shoves aside impeding shrubs and vines. 

The common cassowary’s body is covered with dark brown feathers 
of wiry appearance; its featherless head is blue. To its neck are attached 
six or eight bell-like balls of bright blue or scarlet. These ornaments and 
its shiny black helmet make it the most colorful bird of the flightless group. 
It lacks tail feathers. 

The cassowary will eat berries, figs, whole oranges, grasshoppers, 
cockroaches, spiders, caterpillars, and will swallow pebbles. In confinement 
it is fed bread, plantains and sweet potatoes and is as promiscuously vora¬ 
cious as the ostrich. A popular book shows a photograph of a wooden spool,, 
a doll, a rubber ball, a powder compact and an assortment of bottle caps 
removed from the stomach of one former resident of the New York Zoo¬ 
logical Park. However this jungle bird’s sole enemy, other than itself, is 
man who hunts it for its delicious flesh and also for its skin, of which the 
ranchers make hearth rugs and door mats. 

Cassowaries are extremely powerful, and the sharp nail of their inner 
toe is a dangerous weapon. With one forward or sideward kick the mighty 
bird can easily knock a man down. 

Cassowaries pair off and usually roam in a group of four or five 
couples. They mate during August and September. The eggs, measuring 
from three to six inches in length, are laid in beds of green moss in the 
depths of the jungle. They are rendered practically invisible by their ex¬ 
quisite emerald color. The incubation period lasts for two months. The 
chicks are a dull rusty brown. When they are a few months old, the birds 
gather in flocks of several families for mutual defense and protection of 
the chicks. 


22 


New York Zoological Society. 

COMMON CASSOWARY (Casuarius galeatus). Height: 5 feet. Range: Island of 
Ceram. Other species are known to inhabit Australia and New Guinea. 

When tame, these birds follow their masters like pet dogs. If teased, they 
can knock a strong man down with a swift kick. 



Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 

VIOLET-NECKED CASSO¬ 
WARY (Casuarius vio- 
licolis) . Range: Aru Is¬ 
lands, near New Guinea. 



• j*, € 





EMUS 


Next to the ostrich, the emu is the tallest of living birds, attaining an 
average height of five to six feet. It inhabits the inland plains of Australia, 
having been nearly exterminated in the more populous sections of the con¬ 
tinent. The emu is hunted for its oil and for its flesh, which in the young 
bird is sweet and tender. An emu leg provides four or five hungry 
natives with a good meal. 

At a distance the emu’s dull-brown plumage appears more like hair 
than feathers. Its body feathers are double, having two distinct shafts and 
webs. Emus differ from cassowaries in having head feathers; from ostriches 
in being shorter and squatter, and in having three toes instead of two. 
They are the wariest of the flightless birds, and are considered by some 
scientists to be the most primitive type of living bird. 

In the mating season the female emu emits a low booming sound by 
expanding and contracting a large membranous bag connected to her wind¬ 
pipe. She lays six or seven eggs in a cavity in the sand. The eggs, colored 
a beautiful dark bottle-green, are hatched by the male, the incubation 
period lasting eight weeks. 

Emus thrive in captivity and become quite tame. Some specimens have 
lived for more than a quarter of a century. A cruel practice of the Aus¬ 
tralian natives when they capture an emu is to break its small wings. The 
reason for this custom is unknown, as the wings would be of no help to 
the emu in escaping. 


24 


New York Zoological Society. 


EMU AND YOUNG (Dromaeus novae-hollandiae). Height: 6 feet. Range: South¬ 
eastern Australia. 

Emus are strictly monogamous. Males rear their young after hatching the 
eggs. The eggs are very palatable, and a single one will make a meal for a 
family of bushmen. The eggs require fifty-six days to incubate—the longest 
period known in birds. 



New York Zoological Society. 


ADULT EMU . The emu is 
among the largest of 
present-day birds, being 
surpassed only by the 
cassowary and the os¬ 
trich. In past times it 
was to be seen in almost 
all parts of the Aus¬ 
tralian continent and 
throughout the nearby 
island of Tasmania. To¬ 
day, however, it is found 
only in relatively unset¬ 
tled districts of Aus¬ 
tralia. Emus have been 
extinct in Tasmania 
since 1860. 











KIWIS 


Constantly sniffing, the grayish-brown kiwi conies out at night to search 
for worms and berries. No larger than a good-sized hen, it has a slender 
beak six inches long, with nostrils at the end. Its senses of smell and touch 
aie unusually keen. Finding a worm, it draws it slowly and deliberately 
from the ground, careful not to break it, and with a backward flip of the 
head, swallows it whole. The kiwi’s eyes have degenerated as a result of 
its nocturnal life, and it can scarcely see in the daytime. 

By day the kiwi hides in dense fern beds, rocky crevices, hollow 
trees or deep holes which it digs in the ground. One traveler reports that 
it hatches its single egg by sitting under it rather than on it, accomplishing 
this seemingly impossible feat by placing itself in a hole beside and under 
the egg’s resting place. Another theory is that it covers its egg with moss 
and dry leaves, which in decaying generate sufficient heat for incubation. 
The kiwi has the largest egg in proportion to its own bulk of any living 
species of bird. When disturbed in the daytime, this curious bird emits a 
wide, grotesque yawn. 

The kiwi has no visible wings, but its powerful legs compensate for 
this. It has a sharp spur toe on the rear of its feet, which serves as a weapon. 
Like the other flightless birds, the kiwi has a powerful kick and is a swift 
runner. Its chief enemies are men, dogs and wildcats. Useful to man for 
its skin, it has been well nigh exterminated. It runs with head and neck ex¬ 
tended like an ostrich. 


26 


American Museum of Natural History. 

KIWI (Apteryx oweni). Length: iy 2 feet. Range: New Zealand. 

These timid birds kick at their own shadows. When danger approaches, the 
female defends the nest and the male runs away. A weary kiwi will use its long 
bill as a crutch. 



RU FO US TINAMOU 
(Rhynchotus rufes- 
cens). Length: 1 foot. 
Range: South America: 
Argentina, southern and 
eastern Brazil. 

While the tinamous 
resemble partridges and 
other fowl-like birds, 
their anatomical struc¬ 
ture shows a close rela¬ 
tionship to the flightless 
birds. The males under¬ 
take the hatching of the 
eggs which are laid in 
slight hollows beneath 
overhanging bushes. The 
chicks run as soon as 
they are hatched. Un¬ 
like all other “flightless 
birds” tinamous can fly. 



PENGUINS 


Penguins are as graceful in water as they are awkward on land. Com¬ 
pletely unfitted for flight, the wings of these birds are reduced in size and 
flattened, forming perfect swimming paddles. These paddles or flippers 
move simultaneously in the water. Observed from the decks of ships, pen¬ 
guins have often been mistaken for dolphins as they leap through the surf. 

Unlike flying birds, which have large keels for the attachment of 
flying muscles, the penguins have enlarged shoulder blades to which the 
powerful muscles that drive the flippers are attached. 

With a single leap, the penguin can leave the water, landing with 
both feet on passing ice floes. Once ashore, the scale-like and close-fitting 
feathers are given a thorough shaking to rid them of water. The importance 
of this is seen when one considers the extreme Antarctic cold that many 
species must withstand. This shaking is not done in the manner of a dog 
emerging from the water. The penguin’s body does not move; the skin, 
however, is vibrated by a unique set of muscles. A dense layer of fat just 
under the skin gives the bird added protection. 

Standing erect, its four toes pointed forward and its now useless flip¬ 
pers drooping, the penguin resembles a flatfooted little man in a full-dress 
suit. The pure white breast and the gray or blue-gray back is fairly uni¬ 
form in all the species. Some species, however, exhibit distinctive mark¬ 
ings. The king penguin, found in abundance in the Straits of Magellan 
and the Falkland Islands, displays bright orange patches on the head and 
neck. The rock hopper, a species that inhabits islands off the coast of South 
Africa, is perhaps the most colorful of the group. Its head is adorned 
with long golden feathers. 

Penguins range in size from the little sixteen inch blue penguin of 
Australia and New Zealand, to the enormous and dignified emperor, an 
Antarctic species which attains a height of four feet and weighs from sixty 
to seventy pounds. 

Penguins: Emperor Penguin. 

Cape Penguin. 



PENGUINS 


In keeping with their sober costumes, penguins observe a proper decorum 
in their relations, whether they meet casually or in a mood for courtship. 
In the latter case, the male Adelie penguin will take a pebble in his mouth 
and lay it before his beloved as an indication of his serious intentions. 

In October the male scrapes a hollow in the soil of the rookery or 
nesting ground and collects stones, one by one, to form a circle around 
the nest. Stones are few in the Antarctic, and the penguin is not averse 
to stealing one occasionally in the absence of his neighbor. When the re¬ 
turning home-maker discovers his loss, there is a great to-do. The whole 
rookery sets up a squawk as the two contestants engage in battle. 

Penguins lay their eggs in the coldest and most desolate regions, 
usually far from the water. The incubation period lasts for seven weeks. 
To keep the eggs from freezing, king penguins carry them between belly 
and feet, male and female sharing this task. 

Thievish and quarrelsome despite their manners, penguins frequently 
steal one another’s food, stones and even eggs. In the resulting fights they 
inflict savage wounds with their pointed beaks. Unmated males, or “hooli¬ 
gans,” band together in raiding parties and rob the nests of their settled 
neighbors, menacing the entire community until they are driven off. 

Death comes to the penguins from the sea and air in the persons of 
the skua gull, the leopard seal, and the killer whale who eat their fill of 
the defenseless birds. Penguins have no fear of human hunters, often send¬ 
ing delegations forward to inspect the visitors. 

Penguins in captivity show many other human characteristics aside 
from their white shirt fronts. A pair grew so attached to one another that 
when one died, the other pined away and refused all nourishment. By 
way of consolation for the bereaved bird, a mirror was introduced into 
its lodging. Looking into the mirror, the penguin thought its mate had 
been restored to life, but seemed puzzled by the “other bird’s” imitative 
habits. 


30 



American Museum of Natural History. 


EMPEROR PENGUINS (Aptenodytes fosteri). Length: 4 feet. Weight: 60 to 75 
pounds. Range: Antarctica. 

Awkward and clumsy on land, penguins are at home in the wildest surf, 
swimming and diving with the ease of dolphins. 



New York Aquarium. 

CAPE PENGUINS (Sphe- 

NISCUS DEMERSUS). Also 
called Black-footed Pen¬ 
guins. Range: Rocky Is¬ 
lands off Cape of Good 
Hope, South Africa. 

The parental instinct in 
penguins is so strong that 
they will attempt to hatch 
stones if eggs are lack¬ 
ing. This specimen photo¬ 
graphed in the New York 
Aquarium by S. C. Dun- 
ton showers before retir¬ 
ing to its shelter. 








DIVING BIRDS 

(Divers, Auks and Grebes) 

The birds of this group, although they differ considerably, are sufficiently 
similar in appearance to warrant considering them in one group. 

They are all aquatic birds of medium or large size, ranging in length 
from the little auk, less than a foot long, to the great northern diver, which 
attains a length of three feet. The grebes fall between these two extremes, 
few exceeding twenty inches. In addition to being strong fliers, these birds 
are thoroughly adapted to life on the water. They are all expert divers and 
swimmers. They find travel on land cumbersome and resort to it only dur¬ 
ing the breeding season. Short legs placed far back and webbed or lobed 
toes are their distinguishing characteristics. Most of them have moderately 
long necks (some of the auks excepted), and the sharp-pointed bills so 
essential to fishing birds. 

The great northern divers are circumpolar in distribution and should 
not be considered game birds. As in the case of the wary grebes, they dive 
into the water at the very instant a gun-shot is heard, not to reappear until 
several minutes later at a safer distance. 

The spruce and stocky little Arctic auks resemble the Antarctic pen¬ 
guins more than they do their immediate relatives, the divers. Like the 
penguins, they wear the formal dark jacket and white vest, and stand erect. 

The grebes, in contrast to the auks, spend the greater portion of their 
lives in freshwater lakes. It is only during the winter months that they 
take to the open sea. The webbed feet typical of the aquatic birds are 
lacking in the grebes. Their toes are flattened into broad and unconnected 
lobes, each lobe terminating in a wide, flat nail. In swimming under water, 
they propel themselves with powerful strokes of their lobed feet, their 
wings lying flat at their sides. Any of these birds, however, may use their 
wings in swimming. 

Divers: Great Northern Diver. 

Auks: Little Auk. 

Grebes: Western Grebe. 

33 


DIVERS 


The cry of the great northern diver, or loon, is weird and melancholy, 
much like the voice of a human in distress. 

By day these glossy-black, white-striped birds keep a sharp lookout 
for human hunters. Occasionally they dive into the icy water after a fish. 
The loon can remain under water as long as eight minutes, exhaling the 
air from its lungs to make itself heavier than water. It reappears in a far 
distant spot and so outwits many a hunter. Fishermen have frequently 
pulled in these diving birds on their lines, as the birds readily take a 
baited hook while under water. 

On land these divers are ungainly, their legs being set so far back 
on their bodies that they waddle along in the manner of geese. 

Great northern divers breed during May and June and are seldom 
seen flying except during the period of migration. At this time male and 
female retire from the general flock to fly inland, usually settling on the 
shores of uninhabited rivers and lakes. Here they build a makeshift nest 
of grass and mud near the water’s edge, and the female lays two eggs 
which take about four weeks to hatch. The eggs are dark brown, speckled 
with black. As this color makes them almost invisible in the mud, the birds 
take no steps to conceal them. The female takes chief responsibility for 
hatching, lying flat on the eggs so that she can slip into the water at a 
moment’s notice. As soon as the young are born, they take to the water 
and swim like experts. 

In winter the great northern divers migrate as far south as Morocco 
or Palm Beach. 

The smallest and most common member of this family is the red- 
throated diver which nests in the Arctic region. 


34 


American Museum of Natural History. 

GREAT NORTHERN DIVERS AND NEST (Colymbus immer). Also called Loon. 
Length: 2y 2 feet. Weight: 10 pounds. Range: Arctic Seas. 

It is not unusual for these birds to remain under water for eight minutes. 
They frequently utter horrifying screams. 



AUKS 


As twilight falls, grayish-black little auks rise from their Arctic cliffs 
in great swarms and head seaward to find their food. All during the night 
they forage for shrimps, crabs, snails and small marine worms. At dawn 
they rise from the sea to return to the shore. 

With their webbed feet and rounded tails, they can either paddle over 
the ocean’s surface or swim under water. But the extreme rearward bend of 
their knees hinders them in walking. When placed on flat ground, in fact, 
they are not even able to take off. From the cliffs, where they repose in an 
upright position closely resembling the stance of man, they fall into the air 
when ready to take flight. Their cry sounds like pi-u-lee, pi-u-lee. 

In some regions the little auks feed on planktons and floating seaweed. 
In stormy weather plankton sinks far below the surface of the sea, where 
the hungry birds are unable to reach it. During great storms thousands 
of these “ice birds” are driven to the shores of England, half dead from 
starvation. 

During June and July little auks lay single eggs in holes or tunnels 
deep enough to keep out the Arctic fox, the chief animal enemy of the 
diminutive birds; in some cases the eggs are placed on high ledges in 
loose rock as much as two hundred feet above sea-level. The pale greenish- 
blue egg is about one and one half inches long and takes twenty-four days 
to incubate. The parents bring their chicks mouthfuls of shrimp and crabs 
until they are full-grown. 

The auks are almost completely marine, spending the major portion 
of their lives on the open ocean, many miles from shore. They come in 
only to breed, and then they gather in vast communities on the rocky shores. 
With the common razorbills of the English coast, the guillemots that in¬ 
habit both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America, and the puffins 
or sea-parrots of the Arctic, they form a distinct family of small and com¬ 
pact aquatic birds. The puffins are amazingly grotesque with their enor¬ 
mous, brilliantly colored beaks. 


36 


New York Zoological Society. 

LITTLE AUK (Alle alle). Length: 8 inches. Range: North Atlantic Ocean from 
Iceland to New Jersey. 

The single large egg laid by the little auk on the ledge of its cliffside 
home is pointed at one end so that if dislodged, it will roll safely in a circle. 



Carol Stryker, Staten Island Zoological Society. 


LITTLE AUK. Also 
called Dovekie. In win¬ 
ter little auks fre¬ 
quently fly southward 
from their Arctic 
home. Flocks of these 
birds are seen in New 
York harbor after 
severe storms. This lit¬ 
tle fellow, accom¬ 
panied by thirty-five 
of his species, was 
found in a rain puddle 
on a Staten Island 
truck farm. 


37 





GREBES 


The western grebe, an expert diver, makes a floating nest of grass, twigs and 
rushes. Like a raft with a slight depression in the center, it lies among the 
reeds by the river bank. Here four or five creamy white eggs are laid, about 
two and one half inches long. When an enemy approaches, the grebe rapidly 
covers its eggs with vegetation. 

In addition to their diving ability, grebes have a strange gift of regu¬ 
lating their degree of immersion when floating on the water. When they 
feel safe, their long graceful necks rise far out of the water, but sensing 
danger, they submerge leaving only the tips of their needle-like bills 
above the surface. Or else they may dive like a flash, to reappear a full 
minute later far out of shot-gun range. They never take to wing when 
pursued, although they can fly well. 

The diving bird’s slender head, long neck and spear-like bill adapt 
it for fish catching; in addition to fishes, it eats frogs, insects, seeds and the 
shoots of aquatic plants. 

Though grebes spend most of their time in the water, they fly rapidly 
and can make long journeys; their only difficulty is the take-off, which is 
accompanied by much kicking and splattering. In flight their legs are car¬ 
ried well behind, perhaps serving as rudders in the absence of a well- 
developed tail. 

The rearward situation of the diving bird’s feet makes walking ex¬ 
tremely difficult, so on land it merely rests on its breast or stands upright. 

Outstanding members of the grebe family include the fresh-water 
dabchick of the Old World. To protect its young from danger this small 
bird tucks them under its wings and dives under water. During the breeding 
season the male of the great crested grebe is highly ornamented with long 
tufts and crests of beautiful, silky plumage. For years it has been hunted 
down, and its wild cry of alarm, kek-kek, is well known to feather seekers. 
The pied-billed grebe is an exclusively American form, and is among the 
commonest species. Grebes are only mildly gregarious and are seldom seen 
in large flocks. 


38 


William L. Finley, Nature Magazine. 

WESTERN GREBE (Aechmophorus occidentalis) . 
Length: 2 feet. Range: Western North America. The 
parent bird lays four or five eggs on a floating raft of 
lake grass. The young birds are agile swimmers and 
divers. Grebes are sturdy fliers, making long journeys 
during migration. 


39 












ALBATROSS GROUP 

(Albatrosses, Shearwaters and Petrels) 

The birds of this group are often called the Tubinares , or tube-nosed swim¬ 
mers, the Latin name referring to their tubular external nostrils. They are 
all strong flying birds of the open ocean and with their long, narrow wings 
and stout webbed feet are admirably equipped for this mode of life. The 
albatross is a long-distance flier, whose strong flight is characterized by 
circling and soaring. It feeds by day, and its habits were observed by sea¬ 
farers at a very early period in maritime history. 

Some sixteen or eighteen widely distributed species of albatrosses 
have been identified in both warm and cold oceanic regions. Outstanding 
among them is the yellow-billed albatross, or “mollymauk” as the English 
sailors call it. This bird is found in large numbers on the rocky island 
of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic, where it builds its cylindrical 
nest of turf and clay. The wandering albatross, one of the largest flying birds 
known, with an average wing span of eleven feet, inhabits the South Seas. 
Hood Island, of the Galapagos archipelago, is the favorite breeding ground 
of the small sooty albatross. One species which inhabits the southern 
stretches of the Indian Ocean is almost pure white. 

The shearwaters number some twenty-five species and also have a 
very wide distribution. As a group they are considerably smaller than the 
albatrosses. There is, however, some overlap, the larger shearwaters ex¬ 
ceeding the smaller albatrosses in size. The great shearwater is the largest 
of the group, measuring some eighteen inches. This bird is common in 
the Atlantic Ocean. The Manx shearwater is abundant in the British seas 
and breeds along the shores of the English Channel and on the Isle of Man 
in the Irish Sea. One of the few American forms is the black-vented shear¬ 
water, found along the southern coast of California. 

Also included in this group are the petrels, small sea birds endowed 
with great powers of flight. The stormy petrel of the North Atlantic is 
familiar to many as “Mother Carey’s chicken.” 

Albatrosses: Galapagos Albatross, Black-browed Albatross. 

Shearwaters: Manx Shearwater. 

41 


ALBATROSSES 


Albatrosses are the largest of ocean birds, one species, the wandering 
albatross of the Pacific, attaining a wing spread of eleven or more feet and 
a weight of twenty-five pounds. These great white birds follow transoceanic 
vessels for hundreds of miles. For centuries, they have aroused the admira¬ 
tion of sailors by their tireless and seemingly effortless flight. They have 
learned to make use of air currents set up by the moving ships, sailing 
overhead for miles without seeming to move their wings. Sailors frequently 
catch them with baited fish hooks as they swoop down to snatch up the 
galley refuse from the ocean surface. Sometimes they are kept as pets. In 
olden times seamen often used their soft white skin for purses, and carved 
pipes from their hollow bones. 

Travelers and scientists have engaged in a long controversy as to 
whether the same albatrosses follow the ship day after day or whether 
different individuals change off. Some assert that the same bird can, with¬ 
out sleeping, follow a vessel for days at a time; others say that they are 
relieved by different birds of a similar appearance. Both sides offer experi¬ 
ments with tagged birds to prove their case, but the argument is far from 
being settled. 

The wandering albatross was considered by early seafarers to be a 
bird of good omen. Coleridge drew on this legend in his Ancient Mariner, 
wherein the sailor who shot an albatross was pursued by terrible mis¬ 
fortunes. 

In addition to eating refuse from ships, albatrosses feed on fishes 
and small squids. Generally silent, they sometimes utter a grunting moan, 
especially during the courtship ritual. On this occasion, they face one an¬ 
other, about a foot apart, rub their bills together and bow to one another 
in stately ceremony. They will often return the bows of human beings 
during this period. They breed in large numbers on secluded oceanic 
islands, this being their only sojourn on land. Their nest consists of a bare 
space in the shrubbery. The one white egg is laid sometime in May or 
June. The young, fed on food disgorged by their parents, grow very fat. 
After their parents have stopped feeding them and before they have grown 
sufficient feathers to shift for themselves, they live on this stored fat. 

42 



New York Zoological Society. 


GALAPAGOS ALBATROSSES (Diomedea irrorata). Weight: 17 pounds. Range: 
Galapagos Islands and western Peru. 

Considered among the most graceful of all birds, the albatross soars over 
the sea for hours on motionless wings. 

The Galapagos albatross, a small species, has the shortest tail and the 
largest bill of any albatross. Its color is dusky brown with white markings. 
To some travelers, the gait of this bird has suggested the swagger of the 
gangster. Beebe characterizes it as “the gait of flat feet, fallen arches, and 
crippled limbs.” Though awkward on the ground, this bird is a masterly 
flier. In order to take off from level ground, it must first run several feet. 



BLACK-BROWED AL¬ 
BATROSS , OR 
MOLLY MAUK (Dio¬ 
medea MELANO- 
phrys). Wing Spread: 
8 feet. Range: Antarc¬ 
tic Seas and South 
Pacific Ocean. 

A specimen of this 
species was observed 
for thirty-four consecu¬ 
tive years consorting 
and migrating with 
gannets in the Faroe 
Islands, far from its 
native haunts in the 
Southern Hemisphere. 


E. F. Pollock, Nature Magazine, 


SHEARWATERS 


Resorting to land only during the breeding season, the Manx shearwater 
flies swiftly and gracefully over the open sea, shearing or skimming close to 
the waves. About the size of a pigeon, it has a sooty gray back; its breast 
and underparts are white. It generally hunts for food at night. Occasionally 
the shearwater dives below the surface of the water, reappearing with a 
struggling fish in its strong hooked beak. It can remain submerged for about 
twenty seconds. Its stout webbed feet serve to propel it through the water. 

During the summer months this shearwater retires to the most lonely 
coasts to mate. At this time flocks of these birds dot the turfy islands and 
sloping cliffs, and the air is filled with their cry, a cuck-cuck-coo uttered 
three times. The Faroes, Norway, Iceland, the Azores and Madeira are 
favorite breeding spots. In a nest of dried grass situated at the inner end 
of a burrow, the mother bird lays a single white egg, about two and one 
half inches long. The male helps in the process of incubation, which begins 
early in May. The young birds are covered with a thick, fluffy down. They 
remain in the nest until they are full-fledged and very fat, whereupon they 
leave the cliffs for the open sea. The fat young birds are considered excel¬ 
lent eating, and one species, which frequents islands near Australia, is for 
this reason known as the “mutton bird.” 

In late autumn, their domestic life over, shearwaters shift to more 
southerly regions. Great flocks of them gather off the coast of England, 
where they are called “puffin of the Isle of Man,” and they have been seen 
as far south as the Argentine. They are rare in the United States. 


44 


New York Zoological Society. 

MANX SHEARWATER (Puffinus puffinus). Length : 1 foot. Range: European 
North Atlantic. 

Shearwaters choose a spot high up on a cliff in which to make their bur¬ 
rows. Sometimes one entrance leads to several nests. Skimming the surface of 
the sea, these birds seem really to be “shearing” the wave tops. 


45 













PELICAN GROUP 

(Pelicans, Boobies, Cormorants, Gannets, Snake-Birds, 
Tropic Birds and Man-o-War Birds) 

Unlike their relatives, the petrels and the penguins, many of the birds in 
this group inhabit not only the open oceans and sea coasts, but also rivers, 
lakes and swamps. In the order of their adaptability to inland rather than 
ocean life, the pelican takes first place among these birds, since the species 
is often found hundreds of miles in the interior. The cormorants, gannets, 
snake-birds and man-o-war birds follow. When one considers the flying 
ability of the birds of this group, it is surprising that they wander so little 
from the shores on which they breed. They are rarely seen on the open 
ocean. The booby is most often seen far from shore, but it too makes fre¬ 
quent excursions to land. 

In general appearance the birds of this group have marked dissimilari¬ 
ties. Their bills are either pouched as in the pelican, hooked as in the 
cormorant, or pointed as in the booby. Head and neck sizes also vary con¬ 
siderably. The backward position of the legs, the four-toed feet fully webbed, 
the long and pointed wings are features common to all of these birds. As is 
often the case in related animals that do not look alike, the similarities are 
most apparent in the embryonic and fledgling stages. The young man-o-war 
bird holds the tip of its bill against its breast in the typical pelican manner. 
This accounts for its other name, the “frigate-pelican.” The fledglings of 
the boobies and cormorants greatly resemble one another. 

The boobies and pelicans are equipped with shock-absorbers, pads of 
tissue under the skin, that adapt them for plunging into the water from 
great heights. In the matter of sex sizes we again find a lack of uniformity. 
The female booby and man-o-war bird are decidedly larger than the males, 
while in the American brown pelican the reverse is true. 

Pelicans: Brown Pelican. 

White Pelican. 

Gannets: White-bellied Booby. 

Cormorants: Brandt’s Cormorant. 

Flightless Cormorant. 

Man-o-War Bird. 

47 


Man-o-War Birds: 



PELICANS 


Bound on a fishing expedition, a flock of forty or more brown pelicans 
takes its leisurely flight in a long oblique line or else in wedge formation. 
In spite of their great size pelicans fly swiftly, necks drawn in upon the 
shoulders and feet trailing behind. Medieval mariners, seeing a line of 
pelicans far in the distance, often fancied they had sighted some enormous 
sea monster. 

Pelicans inhabit not only the tidal waters of the ocean but also swampy 
districts and inland lakes. Utilizing their ability to transport fish for con¬ 
siderable distances, they often seek their family food supply far from 
their nests. 

The pelican’s most prominent feature is its beak, frequently a foot 
long, beneath which hangs a pouch, capable when distended of holding 
more than three gallons of water. The beak does not, as the popular limerick 
would indicate, hold food for a week, but rather serves as a net for catch¬ 
ing fish. The bird will plunge straight downward from a height of fifty 
feet or more, hitting the water with an awkward splash. Sometimes when 
standing quietly in the water the pelican may spy its prey. It will then 
immerse its head, sometimes somersaulting completely to make the catch. 
On returning to the surface, it lets the water run out of its beak until the 
pouch has contracted, and then swallows the fish. Its stomach serves for 
storage, as digestion is slow. In feeding its hatchlings, the parent coughs 
up small morsels; for the larger chicks, it may disgorge whole fishes. The 
young feed by sticking their heads down the parental gullet. 

Brown pelicans breed in colonies on small islands near the mainland, 
making either a nest of gravel and vegetable rubbish on the ground or one 
of twigs in mangrove trees. They lay two or three chalky white eggs, which 
require about one month for incubation. 

So great is the pelican’s repute as a fisher that in 1918 Texan fishermen 
demanded its extermination, claiming that the voracious birds devoured 
more fish than the entire population of Texas. Investigation showed, how¬ 
ever, that these pelicans fed mostly on the Gulf menhaden, an oily fish 
unfit for human consumption. The birds should therefore be left unmolested. 

48 



New York Zoological Society. 


BROWN PELICANS (Pelecanus occidentalis). Length: 4% feet. Range: Tropical 
America. 

The enormous underslung mouth of the pelican is used as a fish net. In 
captivity pelicans have been known to live for more than forty years. 



Ralph Ue Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 


EUROPEAN WHITE 
PELICAN (Pelecanus 

ONOCROTALUS). Range: 
Southern Europe and 
North Africa. 

White pelicans often 
band together and drive 
schools of fish into shal¬ 
low water, where they 
devour them in great 
numbers. In summer 
these pelicans are found 
in and about fresh water. 
Unlike the brown peli¬ 
cans they do not plunge 
for their food. 


49 




BOOBIES 


Flying at a height of fifty feet or more, a flock of five hundred pale brown 
boobies sights a school of fish and dives headlong into the sea, descending 
like a sheet of rain; where a moment before the sky had been clouded with 
birds, there remains only the foaming spray raised by their plunge. The 
wings stay open until just before striking the water and then close quickly. 
According to Evans boobies are frequently caught by sailors, who place 
fish as bait on floating pieces of wood. So violently does the bird plunge 
that its beak rams fast into the wood. 

Parties of these birds often travel in single file. But when flocks are 
large, they travel three or four abreast, passing overhead at a rate of 
about three hundred a minute. They fly with outstretched necks and wings 
extended. 

In America boobies are found along the shores of tropical South 
America and throughout the West Indies. Their enemies are man-o-war 
birds, who steal their catch, and crabs, who steal their eggs. 

The booby makes no elaborate nest, but places its eggs in a makeshift 
structure of sticks, stones or dried sea-weed, placed on the ledge of a high 
cliff. Usually one of their two or three eggs does not hatch out, and the 
natives of the Cape Verde Islands are said to have based an extensive 
gambling game on this unusual fact. They bet on which egg is the dud, 
marking the eggs to identify them. 

The young are born without a single feather, but their feathers aie 
quick to grow. Three months after leaving the egg, the chicks take flight. 
The nestlings eat squids and fish, which they obtain by pushing their beaks 
into the gullets of their parents. 

Boobies seem to possess a high degree of social responsibility. An 
injured bird will often be fed by members of the flock until it is well. This 
care of the disabled is also observed among the man-o-war birds. 


50 


WHITE-BELLIED BOOBY (Sula leu- 
cogaster). Length: 2 y 2 feet. Range: 
Tropical and sub-tropical seas. 

An excellent fisherman, the 
booby derives its name from hobo 
(dunce), the name given this ludi¬ 
crous bird long ago by Spanish 
sailors. 



New York Zoological Society. 



American Museum of Natural History. 


BOOBY GROUP ON THE BAHAMAS. Deso¬ 
late sandy beaches of the West Indies are 
favorite breeding grounds of boobies. 






CORMORANTS 


Such is the cormorant’s aptitude for catching fish that Chinese and Japanese 
fishermen tether them to their boats with strings and employ them in place 
of hook and line. A ring around the bird’s neck prevents it from swallowing 
the larger catch. As soon as one fish is removed from its beak, the cor¬ 
morant dives after another. A cormorant kept in the London zoo lived 
twenty-three years. 

At liberty these large blackish-green birds fly in V formation. They 
are often seen swimming easily on the surface of the water and are also 
able to pursue their prey for some distance underwater, using both their 
wings and their webbed feet as paddles. They have been found in traps as 
much as forty feet below the water’s surface. Cormorants are very active 
birds and dive and plunge energetically all day long. 

Cormorants have rapid digestion and a phenomenal appetite, eating 
as much as half their weight each day. Fishermen have from time to time 
accused them of eating all the available salmon or other fish at certain 
localities, but investigation showed that they rarely eat fish palatable to man. 

These aquatic birds breed in spring, usually on the narow ledges of 
high cliffs. The female seems to take the initiative in courtship. The male 
toys with the nesting material, then passes it to the female who utters the 
mating call while arranging it. She then spreads her tail like a fan and 
bends it forward; she shuffles her wings and stretches out her head upside 
down along her back, swinging it from side to side. The male puffs out the 
plumage on his head and neck, and blows up his neck sac. Both birds hold 
their beaks wide open. 

Some species of cormorants are of great economic importance to man 
as producers of guano, found chiefly on the coastal islands of Peru and 
other parts of western South America. Guano or bird dung is valuable as 
a fertilizer and has a high nitrate yield. 

52 



American Museum of Natural History. 


BRANDTS CORMORANTS NEAR MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA (Phalacrocorax 
penicillatus). Length: 3 feet. Range: Pacific Coast of North America. 

The young cormorants bred in these great colonies make a tasty dish for 
the ever present sea gulls and sea lions. 



Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers' Project. 


FLIGHTLESS CORMORANTS (Nannopterum 
harrisi). Length: 2 1 /2 feet. Range: Gala¬ 
pagos Islands. 

The pair pictured are courting. 






MAN-O-WAR BIRDS 


Soaring at a great height over the South Seas, the immense man-o-war 
or frigate bird sights a tern or booby bearing a fish in its beak. Itself an 
excellent fisher, the frigate apparently prefers to let other birds do its 
fishing. It is a hi-jacker among birds. Darting down like a meteor, it forces 
the smaller birds to relinquish their prey, either by the mere threat of its 
presence or, if necessary, by a swift peck which may break its adversary’s 
wing. So swift is its flight that it often catches the dropped fish in mid-air. 
Despite its remarkable power of flight, the man-o-war clings closely to its 
breeding areas and is seldom found far out in the ocean. 

A full-grown frigate bird has a wing spread in excess of six feet. Its 
tail, regulated by seven distinct sets of muscles, is well developed and is all 
important as a rudder in directing the bird’s spectacular aerial gyrations. 
The body plumage of the male is a glossy, metallic black, that of the head 
bluish-green. Hanging from its neck is a red sac, which it distends in the 
mating season. The female is less glossy and has a brownish breast. 

The frigate bird eats young sea turtles in addition to immense quan¬ 
tities of fish. A chick has been known to disgorge as many as seven flying 
fishes. These birds are most at home in the air, and consume their food 
as they fly. At night they roost in trees on lonely islands, only rarely alight¬ 
ing on level beaches, as it is difficult for them to take flight unless they 
have a short distance to drop. 

Many breed in February. Nests are built in trees, brushes or rocks, 
building material being sticks torn from branches while the birds are on 
the wing. Into the nest one white oval egg is laid. Father and mother bird 
take turns in sitting, and one is always present, for otherwise a neighboring 
frigate bird will steal the nest and eat the egg or chick. 

The names frigate or man-o-war, conferred on these belligerent birds 
by the early Spanish explorers, today seem hardly adequate. But to those 
seafaring men, centuries before modern war planes, the man-o-war was the 
most striking symbol of speed, grace and fighting power. 

54 




MAN-O-WAR BIRD (Fregata aquila). 
Also called Frigate Bird. Length: 
31/2 feet. Range : Tropical and sub¬ 
tropical seas. 

The man-o-war bird is a pirate, 
feeding on the fish caught by other 
birds. He pursues his victim until 
the morsel is dropped, then he dives 
after it, often retrieving his meal be¬ 
fore it touches the water. 



American Museum of Natural History . 



HEAD OF MAN-O-WAR BIRD. The 
hooked beak of this sea bird is 
used in catching fish. 


55 












WADING BIRDS 

(Herons, Bitterns, Storks and Flamingoes) 

Extremely long stilt-like legs adapt members of this group for wading 
in shallow waters and marshlands in search of food. Most of them are 
equipped with long, sharply pointed bills for spearing fish. These bills 
can be submerged almost completely without any impediment to breathing 
as the small, slit-like nostrils are located at the very base of the bill. The 
boat-billed herons and the flamingoes are exceptions to this rule and feed 
by scooping and sifting the mud bottom. 

The long and powerful wings of these large birds enable them to fly 
great distances, though they seldom do so except during migration. They 
will normally make only short excursions unless pursued. As might be 
expected of birds that do not take to the deeper waters of the open ocean, 
they seldom swim either on or under water. 

Many wading birds roost in trees and often build nests in their pro¬ 
tective foliage, rather than in the more exposed swampland. This perching 
ability is unusual for aquatic birds and is accounted for by the peculiar 
construction of the feet, which are equipped for both grasping and wading. 


Herons: 

Boat-billed Heron. 

Cocoi Heron. 

Bitterns: 

Least Bittern. 

Ibises: 

Scarlet Ibis. 

Storks: 

White Stork. 
Shoe-bill Stork. 
Marabou Stork. 
Wood Ibis. 

Flamingoes: 

American Flamingo. 


57 


HERONS 


A denizen of the mangrove swamps of Central and South America, the boat¬ 
billed heron is remarkable for its grotesque bill. During the breeding season 
these birds may be seen singly or in pairs in the dense jungle bordering 
Brazilian rivers. Though the boat-bill has been known to scientists for more 
than a hundred and fifty years, little has been learned of its nesting and 
mating habits because of the pestilential, torrid, insect-ridden and generally 
inaccessible character of its habitat. Its eggs are believed to be pure white. 
Observations made of the more common herons indicate that they live in 
large flocks, build their nests in a colony near together, and lay from 
three to six whitish or bluish-green eggs in their large nests. 

The boat-bill is a delicate lavender gray above, a lighter color beneath 
and on the tail. Its head and the long drooping crest that issues from the 
crown are blue-black. Its throat and the sides of its face are white, its breast, 
cinnamon red. The bird has large dark eyes. The plumage of herons in 
general is distinctive. The sides of the rump are covered with down that 
disintegrates into a light greenish powder. 

Like their heron relatives, the boat-bills live in small colonies and 
seem to be nocturnal. They are capable of strong flight but usually fly only 
a few yards to the accompaniment of much flapping. They generally lurk 
amid the tangled undergrowth of the jungle and although often unseen, 
their presence is detected by their harsh croaks and squawks. Most herons 
are seen wading in the marsh with a slow and dignified gait. Fish is the 
mainstay of the heron bill-of-fare, although they occasionally vary this 
menu with insects, frogs and snakes. The boat-bill, to judge by the form 
of its beak, is probably an inept fisherman. It uses its beak to dig into the 
sand and mud at the river bottom for aquatic worms and small crustaceans. 

Othei members of the heron family inhabit not only the swamps and 
maishes but also the sea coasts. Herons are found the world over except 
in the far north. 


58 


Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 

BOAT-BILLED HERONS (Cancroma cochlearia). Length: iy 2 feet. Range: Trop¬ 
ical America. 

The boat-bill uses its bill as a shovel for turning over mud when the bird 
searches for worms, frogs and the like. 



Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 


COCOI HERON (Ardea cocoi). Height: 2y 2 
feet. Range: Rivers of southern South 
America. 

This heron resembles the great blue 
heron of North America in haunts, habits, 
call notes and general appearance. When 
the swamps of its native land dry up, these 
herons leave for the river valleys. 



BITTERNS 


At night the buff-black least bittern often stands motionless in the shallows 
among the reeds by the water’s edge, waiting to spear a passing fish with its 
bill. On catching its victim, it often mauls it before eating it. Through the 
night the common bittern’s call is heard, first a loud tapping like a mallet 
striking a stake, then a booming sound like water being poured from a large 
jug. Naturalists have variously indicated this latter note as chunk-a-lunk 
and ooble-ooh. 

In addition to fishes, bitterns eat small mammals, birds, shell-fish, in¬ 
sects and worms, all of which they digest with remarkable speed. In the 
air, they carry the head drawn back on the shoulders; their flight is labored 
and rather slow. Bitterns are most at home when running and climbing 
among the aquatic plants by the shore, or lurking in the rushes. They perch 
with ease, often assuming an upright position with the bill held vertically 
down. In this pose their mottled color blends with the surrounding rushes, 
rendering them almost invisible to the hunter. 

Bitterns build their nests in swamps by crushing down reeds for a 
foundation and constructing a loose mat of softer grasses above it. Here, 
three to five eggs are laid. The domestic life of bitterns is extremely noisy, 
attended by much hissing and screaming. 


60 










LEAST BITTERNS (Ixobrychus exilis). 
Length: 1 foot. Range: North America. 

Stretching out their necks, with heads 
bent low, these birds make their way easily 
through the tangle of vegetation about their 
swamp home. Sensing danger, they point 
their beaks skyward and remain motion¬ 
less, thus resembling pointed stumps. 




SCARLET IBISES (Eudocimus ruber). Length: 2 
feet. Range: Tropical America. 

The scarlet ibis is one of the most vividly 
colored birds. Its brilliant vermilion plumage is 
visible for long distances. Ibises differ from herons 
in having downwardly curved bills. 












STORKS 


For centuries the long-legged white stork has been associated with man 
and unlike most other birds it seeks out his habitations. These plump, 
friendly birds frequently build their nests atop chimneys, gable corners or 
towers, and in many parts of Europe their presence on a farm is regarded 
as a good omen. Except for a few black wing quills, storks are pure white. 

Their nest, made of sticks and reeds, is at first shallow, but each year 
the birds make additions to it, until in the end it may be several feet high. 
White storks nest in pairs, the mother bird laying from three to six pure 
white eggs, which require four weeks to hatch. The female sits on the eggs, 
while her mate constantly helps her, bringing her frogs, snakes, eggs and 
young birds to eat. The male stork is faithful enough to return to the same 
mate for several years in succession. The young are helpless at birth and 
must be fed by the adults, who insert their long, pointed red beaks into the 
chicks’ gullets. Active by day, storks often roost in trees by night. Some¬ 
times they rest standing on one foot, leaning their beaks against their breasts. 

In the fall, when the storks migrate southward to Africa and India, 
and in the spring when they return, they may be seen flying in V shaped 
formation, constantly changing their leader. They fly with their long necks 
stretched forward and legs well hack; their flight is graceful, noiseless and 
swift. Large, powerful wings enable them to reach great heights by soaring 
and circling. 

Storks have no difficulty in walking. They stalk about solemnly in 
search of food both on dry land and in swamps. They generally make their 
homes near lakes, creeks or salt lagoons. Reptiles form a large part of their 
diet, and the birds are esteemed in many regions for their value in holding 
snakes in check. They also eat small mammals, birds, frogs and insects. 
They are voiceless, but sometimes make a great clatter by snapping their 
bills; this habit often betrays their whereabouts. 

Not all storks are white. A black stork, long a denizen of the Dresden 
zoo, lived for thirty years. 


62 


WHITE STORK (Ciconia alba). 
Length: 3!/2 feet. Range: Europe. 

This most famous of birds 
breeds in great numbers in some 
parts of Europe. Its habit of nest¬ 
ing on chimney tops may account 
for the popular superstition con¬ 
cerning its role as a deliverer of 
new-born babies. 



New York Zoological Society , 



SHOE-BILL STORK (Ba- 
laeniceps rex). Height: 
5 feet. Range: Egypt: 
along the White Nile. 

Abu markub or “he 
of the shoe” the Arabs 
call this queer bird. He 
is as shy as his Euro¬ 
pean cousin is sociable, 
and lives near ponds re¬ 
mote from human habi¬ 
tations. 


63 






FLAMINGOES 

As A colony of rosy pink flamingoes feeds in tropical shallows, a few of 
their number stand aside, on guard duty. About every half hour the sentinels 
are changed, and such is their alertness that it is almost impossible foi a 
hunter to come within shooting distance. 

While searching for food, the bird holds its head under water, its 
crown down and turned backwards. The beak, sharply bent downward and 
equipped with a filter, is used as a sort of spoon. In this strange position, 
the flamingo stirs the mud with its long legs, dislodging crustaceans, mol- 
lusks, frogs and insects from their hiding places. Although it consumes a 
number of aquatic animals, its chief food consists of water plants. 

Flamingoes spend most of their time wading slowly and stiffly about 
the shallows, now and then emitting a loud, harsh cry. They are good swim¬ 
mers and graceful fliers, although they must gallop awkwardly through the 
mud to take off. They fly in wedge-shaped flocks, with legs and neck out¬ 
stretched. 

These birds breed in colonies on lakes and salt lagoons. Their nests 
are conical or cylindrical structures of mud, from two inches to two feet 
in height, depending on the depth of the water, and are hollowed in the 
top to receive the one or two eggs. The incubation period lasts for four 
months, male and female sharing the labor. 

The downy chicks, whose beaks, unlike those of the adult bird, are 
short and straight, run from the shell. For three or four days they remain 
in the nest, fed by the predigested juices of some mollusk eaten by their 
parents. The chicks also eat their own egg shell. 

In late summer the adult birds lose their flight feathers and are for a 
time quite helpless. 


64 


New York Zoological Society. 


AMERICAN FLAMINGOES (Phoenicopterus ruber). Length: 3% feet. Range: 
Tropical America. 

Nesting in large island colonies, both the males and females of this 
beautifully tinted bird take turns in hatching the eggs. During incubation, the 
long legs are folded under the body, the graceful neck is coiled away among 
the back feathers, and the head rests on the breast. 



Clifford Sutcliffe, Federal Writers’ Project. 


(Left) 

MARABOU STORK 
(Leptoptilus cru- 
MENIFEr). Height: 
4 feet. Range: 
Africa. 

Because of their 
value as street clean¬ 
ers, these scavengers 
are protected and 
are a common sight 
in many African vil¬ 
lages. Captive speci¬ 
mens often serve the 
villagers for more 
than fifteen years. 


(Right) 

WOOD IBIS (Myc- 

TERIA AMERICANA). 

Height: 3 % feet. 
Range: Southern 

United States to Ar¬ 
gentina. 

This is the only 
member of the stork 
family found in the 
United States. 



Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 











DUCKS, GEESE AND 
SWANS 


The members of this group are perhaps the most familiar of all aquatic 
birds. Ducks and geese have long been regarded as a highly delectable dish, 
and swans have ever been prized for their aesthetic appeal. 

The ease and grace with which these birds glide upon the water is a 
matter of common observation. The three front toes are completely webbed, 
and the short legs drive these paddles with powerful strokes. The phrase 
“like water off a duck’s back” is well founded, for ducks’ plumage is dense 
and is made impervious to water by oil from a gland near the tail. These 
birds are swift and tireless fliers. During the period of migration their 
flying wedges or long wavy lines rival the formation precision of a squadron 
of fighting planes. But on land the gait of these graceful creatures is hardly 
more than an awkward wobble. 

A particularly useful adaptation of this group is the sieve-like bill. 
When a mouthful of mud and vegetation is taken up, the mud and water 
drain through the comb-like openings lining the bill. 

Geese and swans are faithful mates and pair through life, sharing 
parental responsibility for nearly a year after the young are hatched. The 
male duck, however, is irresponsible and will often leave his mate and 
ducklings to shift for themselves. 

Geese and swans are noted for their long lives. A domestic goose 
attained the age of eighty years and a mute swan, seventy. 

Related to ducks, geese and swans, are the screamers, swamp-living 
birds of southern South America. 

Ducks: Mallard Duck. 

Geese: Canada Geese. 

Swans: Mute Swans. 

67 



MALLARD DUCKS 


Known almost the world over, the green-headed mallard duck is a regular 
migrant. With the first autumn frost, V-shaped flocks may be seen flying 
southward, and for days thereafter the air is full of their quacking. Once 
winter has set in, mallards are rarely seen in northern climes, but with 
the first approach of spring, the V-shaped lines return once more from 
the southland. 

Aside from its glossy greenish head, the mallard may be identified 
by its buff-gray color, its white neck-ring, and a violet wing-patch or specu¬ 
lum bordered before and behind with black and white. These birds were 
once the most abundant of wild fowl, but of recent years they have begun 
to grow rare as a result of their popularity among hunters, who covet them 
for their delicious flesh and the prestige derived from bringing back such 
trophies. 

Mallards are omnivorous, eating almost anything in sight, as they 
swim and paddle about the marshes. About four-fifths of their diet is vege¬ 
table, the remainder is animal. Small frogs, toads, lizards, small fishes, 
worms, mice, grasses, nuts and aquatic plants are only a few of the items on 
their menu. In some regions they are held to be most useful to man because 
of their propensity for eating the crayfish that undermine dykes. This duck’s 
broad, flattened bill is so equipped that with the aid of the tongue it can 
disengage food from the marshland mud. 

Mallards build their nests on the ground, constructing them of feathers 
and plant trash. They breed in early spring, the female laying six to ten 
greenish-yellow eggs upon which she sits for a period of four weeks. 

In summer the male bird sheds his brilliant feathers, taking on the 
more drab and inconspicuous plumage of the female. This moult is aptly 
called the “eclipse.” 


68 



New York Zoological Society. 


MALLARD DUCKS (Anas platyrhynchos) . Length: 2 feet. Range: Northern 
Hemisphere. 

During the breeding season the male mallards swim about, nodding their 
heads in all directions and whistling to impress the females. Ducks in the wild 
are monogamous; domesticated, they become polygamous. The flying speed of 
the mallard is estimated at a mile a minute. 



Clifford, Sutcliffe, Federal Writers 9 Project. 


MALLARD DUCK NEST¬ 
ING. The nest is usu¬ 
ally built among reeds 
or high grass near the 
water, and often con¬ 
tains as many as thir¬ 
teen eggs. Occasionally 
two ducks will brood on 
the same nest at the 
same time. 





CANADA GEESE 


Widely distributed throughout North America, this largest of geese is 
known in the West as the honker, owing to its sonorous and varied honking. 
In the North it is known as the gray goose, and in Quebec as the outarde. 
Hunters in many regions claim to have brought down twenty-pounders, and 
fourteen pounds is a common weight. The gray honkers are readily recog¬ 
nized by their white cheek-patches. 

Canada geese breed only after attaining their third year. Their breed¬ 
ing grounds extend from Alaska to Labrador and formerly south from Ore¬ 
gon to Massachusetts. They once bred in numbers on Anticosti Island in the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. Honkers are remarkable for the varied sites they 
choose for nesting, usually clumps of grass in the marshes, but frequently 
cliffs and trees. Often they occupy the tree-nests of ospreys who have de¬ 
parted for their winter homes. With the return of these hawks great fights 
have been known to break out, ending most often in a victory for the ospreys 
who lay their eggs next to those of the geese and begin to incubate. 

The male goose does not help sit on the eggs but stands by to defend 
the nest. Five to nine pale greenish eggs are laid, and the young are able 
at birth to eat, walk and swim. 

In the autumn Canada geese fly southward to unfrozen waters, their 
winter habitat extending from New Jersey to California and southward. 
They fly in wedge formation, usually making their way along the coast, 
following familiar landmarks. 

These birds live in salt flats, tidal streams and marshy ponds, feeding 
largely on vegetable matter except for the sand and gravel they swallow 
to aid their digestion. Either they feed on shore, where they pluck up 
grasses or other plants, or they swim along the shallows, bringing their 
food up from the bottom by thrusting down their heads. 

When intruded upon, these geese will hiss, necks outstretched, and 
strike with their wings. They are much sought after as game but difficult 
to shoot owing to their extreme wariness. 

70 


New York Zoological Society. 

CANADA GOOSE AND GOSLINGS (Branta canadensis). Length: 3 y 2 feet. Range: 
North America. 

These birds have been partially domesticated; their wings are cut to keep 
them from being lured off by wild geese. 



Clifford, Sutcliffe, Federal Writers’ Project. 


CANADA GEESE. The 

fall migrations of these 
birds are familiar to all. 
High overhead, the fly¬ 
ing wedge of honking 
geese speeds on its jour¬ 
ney over a thousand 
miles, in search of a 
warmer climate. 


71 


MUTE SWANS 


The low graceful neck, the snow-white plumage and stately bearing of the 
mute swan have made it an ornament on the ponds and lakes of the world. 
In England during the Middle Ages it was regarded as the “Royal Bird” 
and could not be kept without a license or swan mark registered on its bill. 
At first these marks were conferred most sparingly, but by the days of 
Queen Elizabeth there are said to have been nine hundred distinct swan 
marks in England, some held by private persons and some by corporations. 
The swans of the realm were placed under the control of a royal swanherd, 
a most elevated dignitary. This official travelled throughout the country, 
seeing to it that the regulations covering the majestic bird were enforced. 
The extension of swan rights to the corporations indicated the loosening 
of feudal restraints. 

The young swans or cygnets are considered a great table delicacy and 
are fattened for this purpose at great expense. 

In its wild state this swan breeds from North and Central Europe to 
Central Asia. It feeds primarily on the seeds of water plants, mollusks and 
insects. Because of its great size and beauty, it enjoys a considerable place 
in ancient legends, the best known of which is that of Lohengrin, the Teu¬ 
tonic knight errant, who travelled about in a boat drawn by a swan. 

Mute swans usually nest on a small island. The nest is often as much 
as two feet high and six feet in diameter. Five to nine grayish-olive eggs 
are laid, which require five to six weeks for incubation. When hatched, the 
young are covered with sooty-gray down; the first feathers are dark brown, 
gradually changing to white. It takes about a year for the bird to attain its 
familiar snow-white color. During this time the patient mother keeps con¬ 
stant watch over her fledgling. The male has been known to rush wildly at 
any intruder, causing considerable injury with its powerful wings. 

72 


New York Zoological Society. 

MUTE SWAN AND CYGNETS (Cygnus olor). Length: 5 feet. Range: Europe and 
Asia. 

These very ornamental birds, though silent, are kept on lakes and ponds 
all over the world, because of their great beauty. 



New York Zoological Society. 


HORNED SCREAMER 
(Palamedea cornuta). 
Length: 3 feet. Range: 
South America: Gui- 
anas and Amazon Val¬ 
ley. 

Young horned scream¬ 
ers are reared to defend 
the poultry of natives 
from birds of prey. 
Their sharp-spurred feet 
and wing-tips make them 
formidable warriors. 
The slender “horn” on 
the head of adults is 
usually more than three 
inches long. Screamers 
are thought to be re¬ 
lated to the ducks, geese 
and swans. 


73 














BIRDS OF PREY 

(Condors, Secretary Birds, Hawks and Eagles) 

The birds of this group are especially adapted for obtaining their sub¬ 
sistence by preying upon their fellows. They are solely flesh eaters and 
either pursue and capture their victims alive, rob other birds of their catch, 
or feed on carrion. As a group they are the most feared and hated members 
of the feathered family. Many species of this group, however, destroy ob¬ 
noxious pests such as mice and harmful snakes or help clean up carrion. 
The turkey buzzards, familiar to the residents of the southern United States, 
fall into the latter class. 

The eyes of these birds are often sunk beneath projecting ridges, which 
lend them a sinister look. Their beetling brows coupled with their loud 
harsh cries seem to assist the birds of prey in their work by terrifying 
their victims. However, the destructiveness of birds of prey to game and 
poultry is generally greatly exaggerated. 

Falconry, a favorite diversion of royal families during the Middle 
Ages, is still practised today by the aristocracy in England, Arabia and 
Persia. The art consists in patiently training a falcon or hawk to hunt 
down its prey but not to devour it. The bird is carried on the left wrist, 
which is protected by a heavy gauntlet. The golden eagle, one of the largest 
and most magnificent of the birds of prey, is trained to hunt down hares, 
foxes and even fleet-footed antelopes. 

Condors: Californian Condor. 

Andean Condor. 

Secretary Birds: Secretary Bird. 

Vultures: Bearded Vulture. 

Turkey Vulture. 

Indian Vulture. 

Hawks: Cooper’s Hawk. 

Eagles: American Eagle. 

75 


CONDORS 


In the wild state condors subsist chiefly on carrion. A few of them can 
devour a dead horse or cow in a surprisingly short time. Gifted with amaz¬ 
ing sight, they watch from dizzy heights the activities of beasts of prey on 
the earth below them. When a puma has gorged himself and abandoned 
the carcass of his kill, a condor may dash down and eat the remainder. 
Sometimes they join gulls in eating a dead whale cast up on the shore. 
But condors do not depend on carrion alone for their food. They kill 
mammals and birds, and have been known to attack young goats and lambs. 
Tales of condors flying away with children, however, are purely mythical. 
Actually, the birds can carry comparatively little weight in their claws. 

The Californian condor shares with its South American relative, the 
Andean condor, the distinction of being the largest and heaviest of flying 
birds. Its wing spread ranges from eight to nine feet, and some specimens 
have weighed as much as thirty pounds. Yet, despite this weight they fly 
with great speed, soaring and gliding over their native mountains. 

The Californian condor lays a single egg during the winter months, 
in a cave or recess among the rugged cliffs. The egg is greenish-gray and 
measures approximately four by tw T o inches. The nestlings are covered 
with white down except on the head, which is bare. Theirs is probably the 
longest infancy in the bird world, growth not being complete until the third 
year. The youngsters hiss and growl, while the adult birds are silent. Con¬ 
dors breed in pairs, showing hostility to any intruder. 

In former days these birds were common, their range extending 
throughout California and into Oregon and Washington. Today they have 
been nearly exterminated and are restricted to Southern California, where 
less than ten families are reported to be in existence. In Lower California, 
they are somewhat more numerous. Formerly they were known to descend 
into the open valleys, but today one must usually ascend the most inacces¬ 
sible peaks to find them. 

The dull black condors can be distinguished at a great distance by the 
white wing tip patches on either side. Their heads are pale orange. 

76 



Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 


ANDEAN CONDOR (Sarcorhamphus gryphus). Length: 4 feet. Wing Spread: 
10 feet. Range: Andes Mountains of South America. 

Many legends tell of condors killing sheep or children, and carrying 
them off into the mountains. These stories are untrue. 

Andean condors are sometimes caught by the Indians who slaughter a 
discarded horse for them to feed on. Large numbers of the giant birds assemble 
for the feast. When they have eaten themselves groggy, the Indians lasso them. 



Hew York Zoological Society. 


{Left) 

CALIFORNIAN CONDOR 
(Gymnogyps californi- 
anus). Length: 4 feet. 

Wing Spread: 10 feet. 
Range: Southern and 
Lower California. 

Condors feed on car¬ 
rion, and their mountain 
dwelling is a fetid den of 
decayed and rotting flesh 
and bones. 

(Right) 

TURKEY VULTURE (Cathartes 
aura). Also called Turkey Buz¬ 
zard. Length: 2 feet. Weight: 5 
pounds. Range: Eastern North 
America. 

Vultures are valuable as 
scavengers of dead and decay¬ 
ing animals. “When they find a 
dead animal they will not leave 
it until all but the bones and 
other hard parts have been con¬ 
sumed.” Relatives of this species 
are found throughout temperate 
and tropical America. 



New York Zoological Society. 







SECRETARY BIRDS 


With dignified, swaggering gait, pairs of gray secretary birds stalk the 
arid hills and plains of South Africa, seeking reptiles and other food. 
Known by the Dutch as slangenvreeters (snake-eaters), they are prized by 
Boer farmers because of their constant warfare against snakes; although 
some question their value, believing that they also prey on game birds and 
antelopes. In some localities they are domesticated for use in eliminating 
insects, rats, lizards, tortoises and snails. 

About four feet in height, the secretary bird resembles nothing so much 
as a grayish-blue rooster wearing a short pair of black trousers and stand¬ 
ing on a long pair of stilts. It is also characterized as a “crane with an 
eagle’s beak.” 

This snake-eater’s original name was Sagittarius , or archer, given it 
because of its striding gait, which resembles that of a bowman advancing 
to shoot. This name was later changed to secretarius, having reference to 
the quill pens stuck behind the ears of Victorian clerks which gave a fancied 
resemblance to this bird. 

In attacking snakes, this bird fights with its powerful feet while the 
stiff feathers of the outstretched wings help the bird balance as its dances 
around its victim. It recoils after each pounding foot blow, and this fact, 
as well as the length of its legs, enables it to elude the snake’s teeth. If the 
snake does succeed in biting a feather, the bird pulls it out at once. Occa¬ 
sionally a poisonous snake is able to inflict mortal injury, but that does 
not prevent thousands of serpents from being devoured each year by their 
feathered enemies. Snake-eaters have been known to fly high in the air with 
a snake wriggling in their beaks, dropping the prey to the ground to kill it. 

When a pair of secretary birds mate and establish themselves in a 
locality, they drive all others of their kind away. They confine themselves 
to one region and occupy the same nest for a long period. The nest is a 
huge structure of sticks, mud and dried grass, usually situated in a low 
bush or mimosa tree. Yearly additions are made to the nest. Some observers 
have reported nests lined with hair, feathers and wool. Two or three dull 

78 


New York Zoological Society. 

SECRETARY BIRD (Serpentarius secretaries) . Length: 4 feet. Range: Africa: 
south of the Sahara. 

Secretary birds are the cobra-killers of Africa. Their service to man in 
destroying harmful snakes has been acknowledged by legislation protecting 
them from hunters. 


white eggs with reddish-brown splotches at one end are laid, usually in 
August, and hatched out by the female, the entire process requiring six 
weeks. During this season the male becomes exceedingly pugnacious and 
will attack any intruder with his feet and wings. 



Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers Project. 


BEARDED VULTURE or 
LAMMERGEIER (Gy- 

PAETUS BARBATUS). 
Length: 4 feet. Range: 
Mountains of Mediter¬ 
ranean region in Europe 
and North Africa; Cen¬ 
tral Asia and northern 
China. 

Fond of bones, the 
lammergeier will often 
fly with them to a great 
height, drop them on the 
rocks below, and then 
retrieve the shattered 
morsels. It is alleged 
that the Greek dramatist 
Aeschylus met his death 
when a bearded vulture 
dropped a tortoise on his 
head. A lammergeier liv¬ 
ing in London, in the 
zoo to be sure, survived 
captivity for twenty- 
three years. 






HAWKS 


Cooper’s hawk, commonly known as the chicken hawk (the name describes 
several other varieties), is noted for its audacity and strength. With a shrill 
cry it will swoop down on a grouse or barnyard hen quite as large as itself, 
clutch its victim in its powerful talons and tear it to pieces with its short, 
hooked beak. It always captures its victim in open chase, disdaining to 
feed on dead animals and refuse. Like other short-winged hawks, Cooper’s 
hawks do not plunge for their prey, but pursue them in low, raking flight. 
They are able to dart between trees and through thickets, following their 
frightened quarry however abruptly it may turn and avoiding obstacles in 
their paths with amazing skill. In open country their flight consists of a few 
powerful strokes culminating in long glides. They do not soar and circle, 
but fly swiftly and directly to their goal. 

Cooper’s hawks are among the few hawks harmful to poultry. Not 
only do they carry away large quantities of chickens each year, but they 
are exceedingly fond of domesticated doves and rabbits. Farmers have 
long hunted them because of their depredations, but these hawks are still 
fairly numerous throughout North America. Yet they are not solely destruc¬ 
tive from man’s point of view, for they feed on rodents, snakes and insects, 
resorting to this diet when chickens are scarce or well guarded. Aside from 
man, their enemies are larger birds of prey, foxes and weasels. 

The broad-winged and the red-shouldered members of the hawk family 
are the heartiest snake-eaters of the entire group. But many other members 
of this rapacious tribe are not above making a meal of snake meat now 
and then. 

The Cooper’s hawk’s nest is usually built high in a tree, preferably an 
evergreen. This nest consists of a shallow platform of small sticks, often 
lined with leaves and bark. The hawk’s eggs are normally three or four in 
number, and are laid in April and May. 

The duck hawk, a related species, seems to hold the speed record 
among all birds. Observed from airplanes these hawks averaged one hun¬ 
dred and seventy-five miles per hour. 

80 


American Museum of Natural History. 


COOPER’S HAWK (Accipitlr cooperi). Also called Chicken Hawk. Length: 1% 
feet. Range: North and Central America. 

The long tail of Cooper’s hawk enables it to turn at a sharp angle even 
while in full flight. This tail rudder is a great aid in pursuing its prey, which 
often includes poultry. The chicken hawk has the worst reputation in birddom 
for raiding poultry pens, however, this is largely undeserved. 



Ralph He Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 


INDIAN WHITE-BACKED VULTURE (Pseudo¬ 
gyps bengalensis) . Length: 21/4 feet. Range: 
India, Burma, Malay Peninsula and Annam. 








EAGLES 


Swift and powerful in its flight, the bald or American eagle is master of 
its haunts, knowing no enemy but man. Because of its strength and grace, 
and because it inhabits so large a part of the North American continent, it 
was chosen as the American national emblem. 

The bald eagle usually makes its home near a body of water, since 
its chief food is fish. To catch these, it plunges from a great height at an 
angle to its prey, occasionally going beneath the surface. Sometimes its 
powerful claws kill fish so large the bird cannot lift them, and then it 
tows them ashore. Most spectacular is its manner of robbing the osprey or 
fish-hawk of its prey. The osprey seeks to escape its mighty enemy by soar¬ 
ing to great heights, but the eagle circles about, just below it, until finally 
the hawk is compelled to drop the fish which impedes its flight. The eagle 
then catches its dinner in mid-air. In Alaska the voracious bird is hated 
by fishermen, who accuse it of devouring the salmon as they leap up the 
waterfalls and shallows. Yet despite their strength, they are great eaters of 
dead mammals and regularly search the ocean shores for dead fish. 

Bald eagles nest on cliffs or in large trees in the vicinity of water. The 
nests are large structures of sticks, usually five to six feet in diameter and 
of the same height, though there have been reports of nests as high as 
twelve feet. These structures are strong enough to bear a man’s weight. 
Usually two eggs are laid, sometimes one or three. These are two to three 
inches in length; when there are two of them, one is almost always larger 
than the other. Incubation takes almost a month, male and female sharing 
the labor. The eagle is very much attached to its home; if its eggs are 
stolen, the bird will return frequently to its nest. If one bird is killed, the 
survivor takes a new mate and occupies the same nest. 

The young remain in the nest for about two and one-half months. In 
the first year they are a streaked brown and gray color; later they are 
heavily barred with black, and it is not until their third year that they 
acquire the adult plumage, uniform dusky brown, with tail, neck and head 
a pure white. 


82 



Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 

AMERICAN EAGLE (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). 
Length: 3 feet. Range: North America. 

The American eagle is a bird of noble and stately 
appearance whose great strength permits sustained flight. 
However, the decision of Congress in 1782, to make him 
the national emblem of the United States met with 
strong opposition. Benjamin Franklin led this opposi¬ 
tion and characterized the bird as “a rank coward,” who 
lives by “sharping and robbing,” can be driven off by 
the “little king bird no bigger than a sparrow,” and “is 
therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave 
and honest.” There has been a movement for several 
years to make the turkey our national bird. 

Caged eagles, like the one shown above, exhibit in 
their demeanor the most pitiful hopelessness. 

















GAME BIRDS 

(Megapodes, Grouse, Pheasants, Peafowl, Jungle Fowl and Turkeys) 

Since the beginning of Chinese civilization man has found pleasure in dis¬ 
playing or destroying game birds. Pheasants and peafowl have adorned his 
lawns, and stuffed grouse, ptarmigan, turkey, quail and partridge have 
decorated the walls of his hunting lodges. Today a table serving game fowl 
is more esteemed than one merely offering domestic fowl. 

Domestic fowl are believed to be descendants of the wild jungle fowl 
of the Malay Peninsula. Careful selection and many years of cross-breeding 
have produced more than one hundred varieties of domestic fowl. Breeders 
strive to obtain birds that lay a large number of eggs and are at the same 
time highly edible. White leghorns, Rhode Island reds, Sussex and Orping¬ 
tons are but a few varieties that have resulted from selective cross-breeding. 

Although game birds seldom resort to long flights and rely chiefly 
on their strong legs to scurry from their enemies, they can, once launched 
in the air, fly at considerable speed. In a recent test a turkey, urged on by a 
honking automobile, attained a speed of fifty-five miles per hour, a rate 
unusual for so large and heavy a bird. The European partridge can also 
fly more than fifty miles an hour. The take-off is somewhat noisy and awk¬ 
ward as the wings of these birds are short and concave. The stiffened and 
curved primary wing feathers beat the air rapidly and produce a whirring 
sound. 


Megapodes: 

Megapode. 

Grouse: 

Ruffed Grouse. 

Pheasant: 

Golden Pheasant. 

Lady Amherst’s Pheasant. 
Ring-necked Pheasant. 

Peafowl: 

Indian Peafowl. 

White Peacock. 

Fowl: 

Jungle Fowl. 

Turkeys: 

Eastern Wild Turkey. 

85 



MEGAPODES 


Unhampered by the usual domestic responsibilities of female birds, the 
mother megapode, or brush turkey, is at liberty to stalk about foi food 
even during the incubation season. This remarkable bird has dispensed with 
the irksome task of sitting on her eggs. 

In early spring, some weeks before the laying period, the brush turkeys 
set about preparing their nest. Male and female, working together, grasp 
decaying vegetable matter in the long curved claws of their powerful feet, 
and throw it backward to a central point. The surrounding earth becomes 
totally bare, and a conical mound comes into being, frequently attaining a 
height of six feet and a bottom diameter of fourteen feet. 

The birds start to lay their very large eggs at the outer edge of the 
mound and proceed toward the center, laying about four eggs at intervals 
of from nine to twelve inches. The eggs are placed at a depth of four to 
five feet in cavities hollowed out for the purpose by the male, and are then 
filled in with earth and vegetable matter. As the leaves and grass decay, 
the vegetable fermentation generates sufficient heat to hatch out the eggs. 
Temperatures as high as ninety-three degrees Fahrenheit have been meas¬ 
ured within megapode mounds. 

Sometimes the mounds are used year after year with slight additions 
and alterations, and are handed down from one generation to another. This 
accounts for the prodigious size of a mound found on the island of Nogo. 
The mound measured one hundred and fifty feet in circumference. 

No explanation is available as to how the newborn chick makes its 
way to the surface of the pyramid. In any case the young megapode is the 
only bird in existence which is hatched out full-feathered and capable of 
flight at birth. For a few days the chicks remain in the vicinity of the nest, 
but after that they run about like adults. 

The full-grown brush turkey attains a weight of about seven pounds. 
Its upper plumage is olive brown, its lower feathers brownish-gray. Its 
naked head and neck are pinkish-red, adorned with a bright yellow wattle. 
Australians use the feathers of these birds for feather dusters, and hunters 

86 




New York Zoological Society. 


OCELLATED MEGAPODE (Lipoa ocellata). Also called Brush Turkey, Mallee 
Hen, Native Pheasant. Length: 2% feet. Range : Southern and Western Australia. 

Megapodes do not nest upon their eggs but build mounds of earth and 
decaying vegetation. The heat produced by the rotting materials within the 
mound incubates the eggs. The young are fully feathered and able to fly at 
birth. 


eat their flesh, which is variously reported as tender and succulent, or tough 
and unpalatable. 

Megapodes roam in pairs or small groups, searching for roots, fallen 
fruit, insects and snails. They run swiftly when alarmed and fly but rarely. 
Their flight is heavy, noisy and usually brief, concluding in the lower 
branches of a nearby tree, whence they hop to the higher branches. They 
are known to fly from island to island in the Indo-Australian archipelago 
where they range from the Philippines to New Guinea. In captivity they 
seldom live for more than a dozen years. 

The note of the brush turkey is a hoarse croak in the daytime. At 
night it cackles and mews. 

The curassows and guans, turkey-like fowl of Central and South 
America, are closely related to the megapodes but differ sharply in their 
nesting habits. Their eggs are laid usually in bulky nests constructed of 
sticks, leaves and grass placed on the upper branches of lofty trees. They 
are considered fine game birds and are frequently tamed but never domes¬ 
ticated. 


GROUSE 


In early spring, just as the first leaves are sprouting, a muffled drumming 
is heard in the woods, beginning slowly and softly and quickening in tempo 
and increasing in volume until it resembles a roll of muffled thunder. This 
drumming is part of the mating ritual of the male ruffed grouse. 

There was formerly much difference of opinion as to how this sound 
was produced. Recently the matter has been settled by means of the high¬ 
speed camera. Pictures taken by Dr. Arthur Allen show the male bird 
standing erect on a fallen tree trunk. He raises his feathers, lifts the ruff 
about his neck, droops his tail and wings, and then throws his wings for¬ 
ward and upward. The drumming sound results from the air compression 
made between strokes. It is thought that the male makes this sound for two 
reasons: to make his presence known to the female and to warn other cocks 
not to encroach on his territory. 

Grouse make their nests in thick woods, where their russet-brown color¬ 
ing blends with the underbrush. The nest consists of a hollow in the ground, 
lined with hardwood leaves, pine-needles and feathers. In late April and 
in May the female lays an egg a day until nine to twelve eggs are laid. The 
eggs are a glossy cream color with occasional brown spots. Incubation 
requires twenty-one days, the mother bird brooding alone. When a sitting 
female is surprised, she waits until the intruder is quite close and then leaves 
the nest with a great whir of her wings. The young remain in the nest only 
until their down dries, but the family stays loosely united through the 
winter. The female grouse is highly devoted to her brood, teaching them 
to scratch for insects, to hunt berries and seeds; and she is careful to keep 
them away from damp places. If an intruder approaches her chicks, the 
mother bird’s ruff will bristle with rage, and she will utter a shrill, whining 
cry, resembling pee-ee-ee-u-rrr, followed by puk-puk-puk. The chicks re¬ 
spond tsee-tsee-tsee and disappear with incredible swiftness among leaves or 
twigs. The female will even attack dogs when defending her young. 

88 


American Museum of Natural History. 

RUFFED GROUSE (Bonasa umbellus). Length: 1 y 2 feet. 
Range: Eastern North America. 

This game bird will often seek shelter from the 
winter night by plunging into a snow drift. Sometimes 
rainfall crusting the snow traps the grouse in an icy 
prison, with fatal results. 






PHEASANTS 


The golden pheasant, a native of Tibet and western China, is noted for 
its resplendent plumage. The male bears a golden-yellow crest, a mantle 
of metallic green, and an orange-red ruff extending a third of the way 
down his deep blue back. His underparts are scarlet, his rump a golden- 
yellow, and his tail, twice as long as the rest of his body, is black with 
pale brown spots. The female, however, has neither crest nor ruff, and is 
mostly brown, barred and mottled with black. 

These birds are little known in their wild state, where they are timid 
and extremely wary. They are, however, familiar denizens of aviaries and 
for centuries have been kept by the Chinese. They thrive in captivity, living 
for about twenty years. They will interbreed with many sorts of domestic 
fowl. 

Golden pheasants breed in April and lay about thirty eggs in the course 
of one season. The splendid males strut before the females, who pretend to 
be unimpressed. Little is known of their nesting habits as they inhabit 
wooded mountains and are most expert in concealing their homes. The 
wild birds are frequently trapped by natives in search of food, and are also 
preyed upon by owls and eagles. Yet owing to their fertility, they seem 
to be in no danger of extinction. Their flight is weak and irregular, and 
when pursued they usually run into the deep cover of the woods. 

In captivity golden pheasants eat potatoes and grain, especially In¬ 
dian corn meal, and the larvae of blue-bottle flies. They also relish the 
leaves and buds of dwarf bamboo trees, spiders and many kinds of insects. 

Pheasants are alleged to be gifted with an unusual sense of hearing. 
On January 24, 1915, some pheasants at a point two hundred and sixteen 
miles from the naval battle of Dogger Bank, are reported to have shrieked 
themselves hoarse. No human being present could hear a sound of the 
thundering explosions issuing from the North Sea. 

The monals are pheasants of brilliant metallic coloration inhabiting 
the highest forest regions of the Himalaya Mountains. Other species include 
the beautiful argus pheasant, so-called because of the extraordinary “eyes” 

90 


New York Zoological Society. 


GOLDEN PHEASANT (Chrysolophus pictus). Length: 3 feet. Range: China. 

This beautiful bird is not very well known in its wild state, but can be 
found, domesticated, in aviaries all over the world. 


on the wings, that give the illusion of solid spheres, the multicolored Am¬ 
herst pheasant of China, the male of which species struts before the female 
and displays only the feathers on the side facing her; and the lovely black 
and white silver pheasant. 

The hoatzin is another curious creature classified among the game 
birds. It is remarkable for the claws found on the wings of young specimens 
and for its capacious crop which resembles a gizzard. The claws, found on 
the first and second fingers of the wings, serve the bird in climbing. Clawed 
wings are a remnant of past ages when birds first evolved from reptiles. 



A..—- 


Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 


LADY AMHERST’S PHEASANT 
AND RING-NECKED PHEAS¬ 
ANT (Chrysolophus amher- 

STIAE AND PHASIANUS TORQUA- 
TUS). Length: 4 feet. Range: 
China and Tibet; Range: North 
America. 

These pheasants thrive in 
captivity and serve to decorate 
aviaries. It is alleged that Lady 
Amherst’s pheasant was intro¬ 
duced into England by the 
Romans. The ring-necked pheas¬ 
ant was introduced into North 
America and is bred as a game 
bird by sportsmen. 





PEAFOWL 


Because of its strutting gait and brilliant plumage, the male peafowl, or 
peacock, has become a symbol of pride and vanity, though in reality it is 
no more vain than any other male bird. The most characteristic features of 
the male are his small head of dark, metallic green color, and his great 
fan-like train, which sometimes attains a length of five feet or more. The 
tail is dark brown and not over-sized, but attached to it is a bronze-green 
train of long feathers, each bearing a deep blue “eye” surrounded by 
four rings of iridescent blue-green, gold-bronze, gold and brown. The male 
does not achieve his full plumage until his third year. His mate, like many 
female birds, lacks the ornamental tail and is a dull brown color. 

Many tribes of India and Ceylon regard the peacock as sacred and 
prohibit its slaughter. The bird is easily domesticated, frequently lives 
more than thirty years, and adorns many private gardens where, in addition 
to being beautiful, it is useful in killing snakes and insects. It also eats 
grain, berries, small birds and frogs. 

Wild peafowl inhabit nearly the whole of India, ranging up to a height 
of five thousand feet in the Himalayas. In regions where they are wild they 
make their nests in the dense undergrowth near a stream. They issue from 
the jungle into the open fields at evening and morning to feed, and return 
to the jungle during the heat of the day. At night they roost in tall trees. 
Peacocks fly well, though they must run swiftly in order to take off. How- 
ever, they rely chiefly upon their strong legs to escape from hunters, jackals 
and wildcats. Despite their heavy trains they are able to run through the 
jungle at a high speed. In localities where they are protected they lose 
their timidity and breed in the long grass or shrubbery near villages. 

Peacocks are polygamous, and except when the hens are sitting, they 
are seen in family groups of four to eight. In spring, the courting season, 
the males strut about before the females, displaying their multi-colored 
charms. Peafowls build their nests on the ground or in hollows of large 
trees. Each female lays from four to six eggs, varying in color from pale 
cream to warm buff. 


92 



New York Zoological Society. 

INDIAN PEAFOWL (Pavo cristatus). Length: 3 !/£> feet. Range: India and Ceylon. 

These birds are regarded with superstitious reverence by the Hindus, and 
are permitted by them to go about unmolested. The decorative males are kept in 
parks and on private estates all over the world. Alexander the Great is reputed 
to have brought the first peafowl to Europe. These birds were exhibited for an 
admission fee in ancient Athens. 


The wild birds are hunted throughout India for their tail feathers, 
and the flesh of the chicks has long been considered a delicacy. Peacock 
wings were served at Trimalchio’s banquet, celebrated by Petronius. Dur¬ 
ing the Middle Ages one of the most solemn oaths was sworn “on the pea¬ 
cock.” For this occasion the bird was served up at table, garnished with 
its own plumage. 



Clifford Sutcliffe, Federal Writers’ Project. 


WHITE PEACOCK. This 

albinistic phase of the 
Indian peafowl although 
startling is by no means 
rare. It is the result of 
domestication. Another 
breed, produced in cap¬ 
tivity, is called the Jap¬ 
anese peacock. Its prin¬ 
cipal color is blue. Two 
other species of peafowl 
are known, one from 
Burma and Java, the 
other from the Belgian 
Congo. The African 
species was discovered 
and described by Dr. 
James P. Chapin. 












JUNGLE FOWL 


Jungle fowl are the ancestors of most varieties of domestic poultry, and 
some species are still capable of breeding with their domestic relatives. 
Today interesting experiments in this cross-breeding are being carried on 
with a view to increasing the fertility and size of chickens. 

The jungle fowls nest deep in the forest, but like to feed at the edge 
of cultivated areas. After a Burmese peasant has cut his grain, the fowl 
frequently come from the brush in parties of ten to twenty to pick over the 
leavings. During the heat of the day, they retire to the jungle where they 
roost in the trees; at morning and evening they come forth to feed. Hunted 
for their meat, which is said to be tastier than that of domestic chicken, 
they are extremely wary in eluding capture. 

In size, the jungle fowl resemble the barnyard varieties. Their color¬ 
ing, however, is a mixture of rich crimsons, copper greens and iridescent 
blues. The head is surmounted by a crest of skin, a loose red wattle 
hangs from the neck and the face is featherless. The males are adorned 
with a splendid crimson crest and armed with long, curved spurs. These 
birds are swift runners, flying only when pursued, and then for short dis¬ 
tances. They live on grain, seeds, and the shoots of plants as well as on 
insects, snakes, lizards and worms. Their call is a sharp, short crow like 
that which awakens farm-folk, and as they go about their daily pursuits 
they engage in the conversational cackling of barnyard fowl. Both male 
and female cackle wildly when frightened, but the female emits no smug 
note of self-satisfaction after laying an egg. 

Jungle fowl mate from November to March in the plains and from 
March to April in the highlands, where they have been known to nest up 
to a height of five thousand feet. They lay their eggs, numbering from five 
to seven, on a pile of fallen leaves or vegetable rubbish, within a clump 
of bamboo or other dense thicket. The pale buff eggs are somewhat smaller 
than the grocery store variety. The male bird, unlike the polygamous domes¬ 
tic rooster, is comparatively faithful to his mate. He helps guard the nest 
and also attends to feeding and caring for the young. 

94 



American Museum of Natural History. 

RED JUNGLE FOWL (Gallus gallus). Length: 2 feet. Range: Malaya. 

The aggressive males of the jungle fowl often retire to secluded corners 
of the forest to fight among themselves, many times battling to the death. 
Domestic poultry are an offshoot of the jungle fowl. 


95 








WILD TURKEY 


The Eastern wild turkey, now nearly extinct, is the largest and grandest 
of American birds. One bird may weigh from twenty to thirty pounds and 
will furnish delicious food for the largest family. Wild turkeys were so 
abundant a hundred years ago that a full-sized bird sold for as little as 
twenty-five cents. These are the birds which afforded the Pilgrim Fathers 
their first Thanksgiving dinner. 

The turkey is not, as some believe, a Turkish importation. On the 
contrary, it was for hundreds of years bred and domesticated by the Incas 
and Aztecs and was introduced into Europe from Mexico by Vasco da Gama 
in 1530. Its name is probably derived from its call, turk-turk-turk. 

In appearance wild turkeys resemble the familiar domestic gobblers. 
Like the domestic turkey cock, the male is notoriously vain. In the mating 
season, in April, he expands his body plumage, raises and spreads his fan¬ 
shaped tail, swells his naked head ornaments, droops and rattles his wing 
quills. Thus beautified, he struts about and gobbles for the delectation of 
his female admirers. At this season the cock has a peculiar mechanism for 
food storage. A large store of rich fat accumulates on his breast to supply 
him with energy for his extensive courtship. 

The males adopt separate tactics for hens above one year old and for 
debutantes. In courting the former they affect indifference and strut more 
pompously, awaiting advances on the part of the female. With the young 
ladies, they are more energetic and less pompous. Sometimes they rise from 
the ground, fly about the hen, and then alight to run for some yards at 
top speed, dragging wings and tail along the ground. Then drawing near 
the timid female, they allay her fears by purring. Turkey cocks have been 
known to fight one another viciously for the possession of a hen, both suitors 
sometimes meeting a warrior’s death. 

Turkey’s nests consist of a hollow scooped in the ground and lined 
with a few withered leaves. They are usually concealed beside a fallen 
tree or under a thicket of briars. The eggs, usually eight to fifteen in 
number, are a dull cream color, sprinkled with red dots. The females are 
so exceedingly cautious that they always approach the nest from a dif- 

96 



New York Zoological Society. 


EASTERN WILD TURKEY (Meleagris gallopavo). Length: 4 feet. Weight: 25 
pounds. Range: Eastern United States. 

This game bird provided sustenance for the first settlers on New Eng¬ 
land’s rugged coast. It has become thereby the symbol of good cheer and 
“thanksgiving.” Benjamin Franklin favored the turkey over the eagle as the 
national emblem of the United States. 


ferent direction. Sometimes two or three mother birds lay in the same nest 
and take turns in brooding and guarding; the males neglect to take care 
of the young. 

Turkeys do not migrate, but in the fall and winter they wander in 
search of berries, nuts, grasshoppers, crickets and other insects. At this 
season, males and females separate into groups, while young and old males 
also form cliques. They are strong runners and can travel long distances 
by land. When pressed, they show themselves to be good fliers, flying with 
tails spread wide and wings beating rapidly. In the presence of hunters, 
they sometimes try to escape by strutting about deliberately, apparently 
feigning to be tame birds. 

The young have a habit of rolling in abandoned ants’ nests to rid 
themselves of ticks, as the ticks will not tolerate the smell of ants. 


97 









CRANES AND RAILS 


Cranes, rails and related birds are widely distributed, inhabiting plains, 
marshes and swamps the world over. Individuals like the broad-toed coots 
are adapted for aquatic life, while others, such as bustards and kagus, are 
land birds. The group includes the roatelos and monias of Madagascar; 
the bustard-quail and hemipodes of the Old World; the cranes, found every¬ 
where except in South America; the limpkins of both Americas; the trum¬ 
peters, confined to South America; the rails, coots and gallinules of all 
countries; the sun-grebes or fin-foots of the Old World and South America; 
the kagus of New Caledonia in the South Pacific; the sun-bitterns of Central 
and South America; the cariamas of South America; and the bustards of 
the Old World. 

Naturalists have had ample opportunity to observe the interesting 
habits of the members of this order. In the face of rising flood waters, for 
example, the monias of Madagascar often move their nests to higher ground 
where they will be safe. They are held sacred by the natives. 

Cranes are remarkable for their long, coiled windpipes, which run 
like the involved tubes of a French horn into their hollow keels. The loud 
trumpet-like calls issuing from those instruments are well known to hunters. 
The trumpeters of South America can maintain their call for a full minute. 

The South Sea kagus are known to toss sticks and stones like small 
hoys at play. 

Sun-bitterns when alarmed, and also during courtship, make a great 
display of their wings and tail. Kagus also exhibit this habit. 

Bustards, large birds growing to a length of four feet, were formerly 
abundant in Britain hut are now extinct in this part of their range. In 
limited numbers they are still found in southern Europe, North Africa and 
parts of Asia. 


Cranes: 

Little Brown Crane. 


Sandhill Cranes. 


Demoiselle Crane. 

Rails: 

Carolina Rail. 


99 



CRANES 


In spring and fall lines of slate-blue sandhill cranes could once be seen 
against the sky, as these long-legged, long-necked birds took their slow, 
ponderous flight to and from their breeding grounds. In the air they utter 
the hoarse croaks which have gained them the surname of “whooping 
cranes.” The cranes are the longest of American wading birds, attain¬ 
ing a length of as much as four feet from the tip of their toes to the sparse 
black hairs of their heads. When migrating they follow a leader in perfect 
Indian file, but in the nesting season lone birds are sometimes seen soaring 
and circling about at a great height. In former years sandhill cranes were 
distributed throughout almost all of North America. Today they breed chiefly 
in Florida and Louisiana. 

Sandhill cranes breed in March, when they assemble in an open spot 
to hold their ceremonial dances. Males and females hop, skip and jump 
about one another, bowing and prancing, croaking and calling. In Florida 
the nest of grass and weeds is placed on the edge of a grassy pond or is 
made into a floating island. In the western United States it may be located 
in a dry prairie. Exotic species such as the demoiselle, crowned and Stanley 
cranes, nest on the ground. 

The crane’s eggs are two to four in number. The embryo birds have 
soft bills, but they are equipped with a special egg tooth with which to 
break through their shell. The young require only a few weeks to become 
such rapid runners that they can be caught only with the greatest difficulty. 
The chicks are considered very good eating, and many are shot. They also 
make excellent pets and learn to defend themselves against dogs and cats. 

Sandhill cranes search for food singly. Their diet is well-balanced, 
including animal, vegetable and mineral food, most of which is swallowed 
whole. The vegetable element consists mainly of com, potatoes and sweet 
potatoes; the animal, of fishes, frogs, snakes, shell-fish, field mice and other 
small mammals usually swallowed whole; the mineral side is made up of 
stones and other hard objects swallowed by the bird along with its food, 
but then regurgitated with the indigestible remainder of its diet. 

100 



New York Zoological Society. 


LITTLE BROWN CRANE (Grus canadensis). Length: 3 feet. Range: North Amer¬ 
ica. 

This bird was once thought to be the young of the sandhill crane which it 
closely resembles. It breeds in the Arctic, from Hudson Bay to Alaska. 



American Museum of Natural History. 


SANDHILL CRANE 
GROUP (Grus mexi- 
CANA). Length: 4 feet. 
Range: Temperate North 
America. 

Sandhill cranes are 
the least common spe¬ 
cies of American cranes. 
They flap heavily 
through the air, follow¬ 
ing their leader in single 
file. Cranes are long- 
lived; a specimen of the 
common crane reached 
the ripe age of forty. 
The ancient Greeks con¬ 
sidered cranes a great 
delicacy and snared 
them. 


101 





RAILS 


Carolina rails, or soras, stand habitually motionless, deep in tangled 
marshes. These timid, gray-brown birds are virtually invisible among the 
reeds, and their presence is detected only by the whistling call of ker-wee, 
ker-wee, issuing from the throats of a dozen phantom birds. Even in places 
where the vegetation is not so thick, it requires a keen eye to see their 
dull-colored plumage. When alarmed or annoyed, their note is kuk or else 
peep , depending on their mood. 

Occasionally the soras venture out of the reeds to feed, but their 
usual diet of insects, worms, mollusks and seeds is found within the marshes. 
They move their long, slender legs gingerly, bobbing their heads as they 
walk and darting back to cover at the slightest sound. They are swift run¬ 
ners, as their slender bodies enable them to slip rapidly through the marsh 
thickets. Their flight is slow and weak, and they prefer running to flying. 
Sometimes they even swim streams rather than fly. Rails are accomplished 
divers. 

In the fall they live largely on wild rice and oats, and then they grow 
very fat. At this season they are hunted from flat boats, and as the rail 
waits until the last minute before taking to feeble flight, it offers an easy 
mark. Soras inhabiting salt marshes are hunted with the help of the rising 
tide which drives them to the highest point in the marsh. Here the hunters 
lie in wait and are frequently able to kill many of the weak-winged birds 
as they take to the air. 

Soras breed in the marshes, making a slight nest of grasses, supported 
on a tussock. The mother bird lays from eight to fifteen drab-colored, brown- 
spotted eggs. The young, which are born covered with blackish down, take 
to the water as soon as hatched. 

Carolina rails live in the United States from April to September. 
In the fall they migrate southward in large numbers. 

In the remote Tristan da Cunha Islands of the South Atlantic a species 
of flightless rail is found. It was discovered by the exploring ship “Chal¬ 
lenger” in 1872 and is known locally as the rock chicken. 

102 



American Museum of Natural History. 


CAROLINA RAIL (Porzana Carolina). Also called Sora. Length: Sy 2 inches. 
Range: Temperate North America. 

Extremely shy, rails are rarely seen except after painstaking search. In 
fall they become fat on wild rice, and are killed in great numbers by hunters. 



DEMOISELLE CRANE 
(Anthropoides virgo). 
Length: 2% feet. Range: 
Southern Eurasia to 
Africa. 

Smallest of all the 
cranes, the demoiselle, 
ornamented with white 
ear tufts, nests on the 
ground amidst young 
grain and grass. 


103 






JAGANAS, PLOVERS 
AND GULLS 

This large group of water birds includes a number of important and 
highly diverse families: the jacanas of tropical America; the oyster-catchers 
found along the sea beaches of almost every ocean; the plover, lapwings, 
turnstones and surf-birds of cosmopolitan distribution; the snipe, wood¬ 
cock, curlews, killdeer and sandpipers, inhabiting suitable localities from 
Ireland to Japan; the long-legged, curved-beaked avocets and stilts, also 
cosmopolitan; the phalaropes found on the open oceans of the Northern 
Hemisphere; the crab-eating plovers of India, Arabia and East Africa; the 
thick-knees of world-wide distribution; the swallow-like pratinocles and the 
fast-running coursers of the Old World; the quail-like seed-snipe, that are 
strict vegetarians and are confined to desolate areas of Peru and Chile; 
the snow white, pigeon-like sheath-bills of the Antarctic; the skuas and 
jaegers who live exclusively by preying upon other gulls and may be seen 
on every ocean; the gulls and far-flying terns familiar to travellers on every 
body of salt-water; and the wave-shearing skimmers of America, Africa and 
South Asia. 

Many members of this group are curious in their habits. For example 
there are the turnstones, who turn over shells and pebbles in search of 
crustaceans; the oyster-catchers, who force open the shells of clams and 
oysters with their strong knife-like bills; the phalaropes, who reverse the 
usual domestic relations of birds and relegate all courtship to the more 
beautiful female, the drab male being left with the burden of homemaking; 
the woodcocks, famous game birds, who carry their young on the wing; 
and the coursers, who suddenly squat when they sense danger, and render 
themselves invisible by blending into the surrounding landscape. 

Jacanas: Mexican Jacana. 

Plovers: Crocodile Birds. 

Gulls: Herring Gulls. 

105 


MEXICAN JACANA 


The long-legged Mexican jacanas lead a sedentary life on the mud flats 
of Mexico and the lower Rio Grande, spending most of their waking hours 
in feeding. They are readily distinguished from other aquatic birds by the 
naked shield or lappet on their foreheads. Easily alarmed, they take wing 
with a plaintive cackle, but in the main they fly little. Jacanas make their 
homes near lakes and ponds, usually choosing those which contain lilies 
and other masses of floating vegetation. Their extraordinarily elongated 
toes permit walking or even running on the lily pads with great ease. They 
feed on minute insect life. Jacanas confine themselves exclusively to this 
insect diet. They are good swimmers and divers, but the adults do not 
make much use of these abilities. Mexican jacanas are greenish or purplish- 
black with apple-green wings. 

Highly gregarious, they are sometimes seen with herons, bitterns and 
gallinules. Occasionally a member of the flock will stretch its neck up 
straight, assuming the function of lookout. Another will extend its wings 
briskly until they meet in back; this pose is thought to be a warning signal. 
The jacanas’ only weapons are sharp spurs in the bend of each wing, and 
these are used only in occasional fights among themselves. 

During the mating season in April the males flirt by raising their 
wings over their backs as if attempting to strike the females. They nest 
from April to August in fragile floating houses, built of leaves and rushes 
and supported on lily pads or other plants. Sometimes the nests are placed 
on the water’s edge. Each female lays four glossy brown, curiously veined 
eggs, which, it is thought, are incubated by the heat of the sun. The young 
are able to run as soon as they are hatched and very soon learn to dive and 
swim under water. 

After breeding, jacanas undertake a sort of local migration, flying for 
some distance about the neighborhood, sampling nearby ponds, but never 
straying far from their favorite breeding ground. As they fly, the yellowish- 
green patches in their wings flash golden in the sun. 

106 



American Museum of Natural History. 


MEXICAN J AC AN A (Jacana gymnostoma). Length: 1 
foot. Range: Southwestern United States and Mexico. 

Enormously long toes allow the jacana to run easily 
over lily pads and other plants growing in ponds and 
marshes. It eats seeds as well as insects and crustaceans. 


107 



CROCODILE BIRDS 


These birds are variously called black-backed coursers, black-headed 
plovers or crocodile birds. 

They were first introduced to incredulous Europeans by Herodotus, 
the historian and naturalist, who wrote: 

“As the Crocodile lives chiefly on the river, it has the inside of its 
mouth constantly covered with leeches; hence it happens that, while all the 
other birds and beasts avoid it, with the trochilos (Crocodile Bird) it lives 
at peace, since it owes much to that bird, for the crocodile, when he leaves 
the water and comes out upon the land, is in the habit of lying with his 
mouth wide open, facing the western breeze; and at such times the trochilos 
goes into his mouth and devours the leeches. This benefits the crocodile, 
who is pleased, and takes care not to hurt the trochilos ” 

Strange as this tale may seem, it has been corroborated in the main 
by several modern travellers, who describe the plover as picking the croco¬ 
dile’s teeth and parading on its broad back as if it were a lawn. At the 
approach of an enemy, the bird, who has sharper eyes than the crocodile, 
takes flight, thus warning the crocodile of the danger. 

These curious African birds can be seen in small groups in swamps, 
on sandbanks, or even on cultivated land, but never far from water. They 
skim over the river in swift flight, constantly uttering their monotonous cry, 
described by explorers as harsh and irritating. The Arabs call this bird 
zic-zac from the sound of its cry. In color the zic-zac is slaty brown above, 
with mantle and crown of greenish-black, bordered with white. Its food 
consists of beetles, water flies, grasshoppers, insect larvae, and occasionally 
seeds. 

The crocodile birds breed in April and May. The mother bird usually 
lays two, sometimes three eggs which she buries in the sand and then sits 
upon. Neither in coming nor in going does she disturb the sand or make 
any mark in it to indicate the presence of her eggs. She sits over them 

108 



American Museum of Natural History. 


CROCODILE BIRDS (Hoplopterus spinosus, Pluvianus aegyptus, Caetusia leu- 
CURa). Also called Plovers. Length: 1 foot. Range: Southern Europe and Africa. 

Walking unafraid into the jaws of the crocodile, these plovers pick his 
teeth for particles of food and leeches. They also warn their host of approach¬ 
ing danger by flying off noisily and so awakening the sluggish reptile. In their 
native tropics they sit over their eggs not to keep them warm, but to protect 
them from the terrific heat of the midday sun. 


not to impart her warmth but rather to shield them from the extreme heat 
of the African sun. The mother bird will often run down to the water, wet 
her breast feathers and return to the nest to cool and moisten the hot sand 
around the eggs. Trespassers, even other plovers, are not tolerated on the 
breeding ground. The zic-zac attempts to distract interlopers by running 
about and settling down on the sand in many different places. Sometimes 
in the presence of danger the parent birds protect their chicks by throwing 
sand over them with their beaks, burying them to a considerable depth. 

Another claimant to the title of crocodile bird is the Egyptian spur¬ 
winged lapwing, a related plover, so-called from the sharp, jet black spur 
in the crook of its wing. With this spur it sometimes attacks smaller birds. 


109 


■ariflpfeaii 



HERRING GULLS 


All along the American coastline, wherever refuse or shell-fish are avail¬ 
able, the pearly gray and white herring gulls soar gracefully through the 
air, screaming as they glide and wheel. These birds do not dive for live 
fish, but will dart down to seize a dead one or a tasty bit of harbor refuse 
floating on the water’s surface. Gifted with rapid digestion and an enormous 
appetite, a gull has been known to devour a fish equal its weight within 
ten minutes. Although useful to man as a scavenger, appreciably reducing 
the pollution of our harbors, gulls are regarded as enemies by Maine 
fishermen who accuse them of consuming thousands of young lobsters each 
year. Gulls will often seize oysters, bear them high into the air, and then 
drop them on the rocks to crack their shells. In Martha’s Vineyard, Massa¬ 
chusetts, the gulls have learned to use the concrete highway for this pur¬ 
pose, causing some inconvenience to motorists. The voracious birds attack 
ospreys to steal their prey. By no means fussy in their diet, gulls also eat 
rats, mice and insects. 

Gulls usually make a nest of grasses, moss or seaweed on the ground 
and only in areas where they have been repeatedly robbed will they nest 
in a tree. These tree nests may be as high as fifty feet from the ground. 
The female lays three grayish, olive-brown eggs, covered with blotches 
and scrawls. The downy, mottled young are entirely dependent on their 
parents until they have developed full plumage and the power of flight. 
During the first year they are brown in color, but in the second year they 
acquire the snow-white breast and slate-colored back and wings character¬ 
istic of their parents. 

Franklin’s gull, a bird sometimes found in the interior of North 
America, has a monument dedicated to it. The grateful citizens of Salt 
Lake City, Utah, erected the monument in grateful commemoration of 
services rendered by this bird in destroying grasshoppers that plagued the 
surrounding country. Another species came to the relief of locust-ridden 
Nicaraguans who for some months had watched the destruction of their 
corn, rice and bean crops. They were finally relieved when thousands of 
gulls flew in from the Pacific and began eating the locusts. 

110 



James McAlpin Pyle. 


HERRING GULLS (Larus argentatus). Length: 1^/2 feet. Range: Atlantic Ocean. 

Gulls seem never to tire as they follow ships or shoals of fishes. They are 
valuable scavengers in the harbors. Herring gulls have been known to live 
more than forty years. 



Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers' Project. 


HERRING GULL. Amid 
the stormy spray of the 
Atlantic, gulls nest on 
rocky inlets and sandy 
beaches. Their raucous 
cries were believed in 
olden times to be the 
voices of drowned 
sailors. Those who be¬ 
lieve this story can be 
called “gullible.” 


Ill 









PIGEONS AND DOVES 


Pigeons and doves, found in all parts of the world, and the desert-living 
sandgrouse of Europe and Central Asia are the only living representatives 
of this order. Not so long ago, however, the dodo and the solitaire were 
also among the living members of this group. Dodoes, large birds once 
inhabiting the island of Mauritius, were killed by Dutch sailors shortly 
after the discovery of the island. The last dodo was clubbed to death in 
1681. The related solitaire, of nearby Reunion and Rodriguez islands, has 
also become extinct within the memory of man. 

The passenger pigeon, now extinct, formerly was present in great num¬ 
bers throughout Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. This blue-backed, red-fronted 
species was destroyed by human hunters. The last known specimen, a 
female, died in 1914 in a cage in the Cincinnati zoo. 

Pigeons are remarkable for the number of domesticated varieties pro¬ 
duced and for their economic value to man as food and as messengers. 
Carrier pigeons are trained by sportsmen, who teach them to “home” and 
race them for prizes. In wartime they serve as a flying liaison between 
widely separated units of military forces. Carriers surviving the loss of an 
eye and shrapnel wounds were cited and decorated by governments after 
the World War. Many pigeons live more than twenty years. 

Doves, the collective name of many smaller members of this order, 
are not readily distinguishable from pigeons. Numerous species inhabit the 
Indo-Malayan and the Indo-Australian regions where they originated; from 
those areas members of the group have dispersed to all corners of the globe. 

“Pigeon milk” is a nutritious secretion produced in the crops of adult 
birds and fed by them to their offspring. 

Doves: Mourning Dove. 

Pigeons: Domesticated Pigeons. 


113 



MOURNING DOVE 


When the mate of a mourning dove dies, the surviving bird will hang its 
head, coo plaintively and search diligently for the missing one. Like other 
doves, mourning doves are monogamous and are most devoted mates. 

In winter they live in flocks, but with the coming of spring they 
scatter in pairs. At this season the male will circle about above the female 
with his tail extended. When on the ground he will strut about with his 
brown plumage spread wide, nodding his head and ogling to impress the 
passively watching female. The billing and cooing of amorous doves often 
awakens and infuriates the weary sleeper on bright spring mornings. Later 
on in their romance, male and female take regular turns in tending their 
eggs, the male sitting by day, his mate by night. It is to the turtle-dove that 
the biblical poet was referring when he wrote that the “voice of the turtle 
is heard in our lands.” 

Mourning doves make their nests in a great variety of sites, but the 
most typical location is on a horizontal branch of an evergreen tree, not 
far from the trunk. Sometimes another bird’s abandoned nest will serve 
as a foundation. The nest is built of sticks and lined with small twigs, 
while sometimes grasses and leaves also are used. The doves mate from 
May to August and sometimes bear two or three broods a summer. The eggs 
are usually two in number. The young are born naked and helpless and 
are cared for with great devotion by their parents. At this season the crops 
of the adult birds secrete a juice which renders their food digestible to 
the young and the parents feed their chicks by regurgitating this “ten¬ 
derized” nourishment. 

Doves usually make their homes near water. When thirsty, they alight 
in an open space near the stream or water hole, and then walk deliberately 
and gracefully to the drinking place. 

The dove’s flight is headlong and swift, and countless birds are killed 
by collision with telegraph wires. They are, in the main, migratory, flying 
south to the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indies during the winter, return¬ 
ing to more temperate regions in spring. 

114 



American Museum of Natural Ilistory. 


MOURNING DOVE (Zenaidura macroura). Length: 1 foot. 
Range: North America. 

Mourning doves are tame, gentle birds and will 
breed near human habitations in gardens and shrubbery, 
feeding with poultry. 



Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers' Project. 


DOMESTIC PIGEONS (Columba 
LIVIa). Length: 1 foot. 

Fan-tailed and swallow pig¬ 
eons result from the interbreeding 
of common pigeons displaying a 
tendency towards these unusual 
characteristics. Darwin drew upon 
these interbreeds in evolving his 
evolutionary theories. 























CUCKOOS 


Cuckoos form an order of birds which includes not only the widely dis¬ 
tributed cuckoos, road-runners and anis, but also the plantain-eaters of 
Africa. Many members of the order, especially cuckoos, are remarkable 
for their parasitic breeding habits. A mother cuckoo instead of building 
her own nest will select the nest of some other birds, deposit her eggs in 
it, and fly off relieved of the responsibility of parenthood. When her 
youngsters hatch, they will usually eject their foster brothers from the nest. 

Cuckoos’ eggs usually are colored in tints approximately that of the 
birds they parasitize. Thus, for example, the great-spotted cuckoo who lays 
its eggs in the nests of crows and ravens deposits eggs of a crow-like type. 
Many other instances of this variation in eggs can be cited. 

Exceptions to the foregoing are found in the habits of the great-spotted 
and crested cuckoos of the Old World. These birds, when hatched, live in 
harmony with their foster brothers. The ani, however, nests communally, 
two or more females working together to build a large nest. Once the 
communal nest is finished, the mothers lay their eggs and hatch them side 
by side. Anis are black-plumed cuckoos found in the American tropics. 

The reptile-eating road-runners of the southern United States, Mexico 
and northwest South America, the yellow-billed and black-billed cuckoos 
common in North America, and the Old World coucals all differ from the 
typical members of the group in that they rear their own young. Road- 
runners, found throughout desert country where they live on lizards, snakes 
and young turtles, run with head lowered and tail horizontal. When they 
stop from time to time, their tail assumes an almost vertical position. 

Cuckoos: Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 

Road-runners: Road-runner. 


117 


CUCKOO 


The cuckoo of Europe is famous for its call, which in many regions is an 
invariable accompaniment of spring. This gentle, dove-like bird is more 
frequently heard than seen. Usually one male bird sings alone, but some¬ 
times a group of males will perform together, creating a “cuckoo sym¬ 
phony.” Less striking are the notes of the American yellow-billed cuckoo. 

The reason for the cuckoo’s impressive invisibility is that it spends the 
greater part of its time hidden away among the leaves, where it eats cater¬ 
pillars. Its effectiveness in destroying these insect pests is shown by the 
finding of as many as fifty of them in the stomach of a dead bird. On the 
wing the cuckoo slips through the trees swiftly and noiselessly. It can be 
seen with the greatest difficulty. 

Male cuckoos are more numerous than females, and the females are 
not faithful mates. Though they do build nests—platforms of sticks and 
grass—these birds are careless and indifferent parents. Some species lay 
their eggs in the nests of robins, sparrows, reed-warblers and other birds, 
who hatch them out and rear the resulting chicks. The young cuckoos turn 
out to be just as unsocial as their parents, for when about thirty hours old, 
they try, often with success, to eject the “legitimate” chicks and eggs from 
their adoptive nest. This trait persists for about twelve days. 

Birds of some species, such as the yellow-billed cuckoo, will not often 
lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, but are said to occasionally smuggle 
an egg into the nest of another cuckoo. This cuckoo lays from three to five 
greenish-blue eggs, often at such wide intervals that a nest may contain 
fresh eggs and young birds at the same time. 

Some cuckoos are migratory, departing south from August through the 
fall, and flying as far as the West Indies, Argentina, or, in the Eastern 
Hemisphere, from Europe to South Africa; and returning with the spring. 

They are frequently mistaken for hawks by other birds and by peas¬ 
ants. Swarms of small birds will mob a cuckoo, taking it for their dreaded 
enemy, while peasants shoot it in the same belief. 

118 



YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO (Coccyzus amer- 
ICANUs). Length: 1 foot. Range: North 
America. 

Cuckoos are often called rain crows 
because they are supposed to utter their 
cry most frequently before rainy weather. 
European cuckoos are notorious for fail¬ 
ing to build their own nests. They lay their 
S. and II. Woodward—“The Adventures of Chico.” eggS in the nests of Other birds. 

ROAD-RUNNER (Geococcyx califor- 
nianus) . Length: 1 foot. Range: 
Deserts of northwest South Amer¬ 
ica, Mexico and southern United 
States. 

Road-runners are rough on 
reptiles—eating lizards and snakes, 
harmless and poisonous species in¬ 
cluded. A recent motion picture 
shows this plucky little bird kill¬ 
ing a rattlesnake. Road-runners 
are deserving of protection. 

























PARROTS AND MACAWS 


Parrots and macaws are favorites with zoos and private aviaries because 
of their brilliant plumage and their ability to repeat human speech. Their 
thick fleshy tongues and the special construction of their voice apparatus 
permit a wide range of articulations, but the ability is purely imitative 
and involves little or no comprehension. 

The birds of this group are inhabitants of the dense jungles of the 
tropical regions of the world and are, with few exceptions, tree-livers. 

These birds exhibit many curious habits. The gentle and affectionate 
lories lap up the nectar of flowers by means of their brush-like tongues. The 
rapacious keas are known to kill sheep by alighting on their backs and 
tearing through their bodies until the kidneys are reached. The great black 
cockatoo has a bill so powerful that it can break a kanary nut, which is 
so hard that it usually requires a heavy hammer to crack it. The crested 
cockatiels can be taught to perform many tricks. Smallest of the entire 
group is the pigmy parrot of New Guinea, often no more than two inches 
long. Parakeets often frequent the cultivated grounds and gardens of India, 
where they cause much destruction to the grain fields and orchards. The 
budgerigar, one of the prettiest of the smaller parakeets, is, however, an 
unpopular pet, for it attacks all the smaller birds in the aviary unless 
placed in a separate enclosure. The modest love-birds derive their name 
from the legend that mated love-birds pine away when separated from one 
another. The hanging parrots of India are unique in that they have the bat¬ 
like habit of sleeping head downward, suspended by the feet from a bough. 
The night-feeding kakapos, or owl-parrots, have completely lost the power 
of flight. By day they are easily caught, blinking stupidly at their captors. 
Of all the talkers, however, the African gray parrot is the most loquacious. 

Parrots: Yellow-shouldered Amazon Parrot. 

Double Yellow-headed Parrot. 

Macaws: Red and Blue Macaw. 

Blue and Yellow Macaws. 

121 


PARROTS 


The yellow-shouldered Amazon parrot, or green parrot, is an excellent 
talker. Capable of imitating almost any sounds produced by man or beast, 
green parrots have been taught to speak and especially to swear in prac¬ 
tically every living language. The traditional tongue of the parrot has, 
however, been Spanish ever since the days of the Spanish Main. 

These birds are long-lived and hardy, many individuals outliving their 
owners. They show no ill effects from long sea journeys and consequently 
they are common pets throughout the world, enlivening many a lonely 
household with their irrepressible profanity, their green, blue and yellow 
plumage and their wise, winking eyes. Sometimes their remarks are so 
biting and pertinent that many people believe them to understand what 
they are saying. At a talking contest for parrots held in England, one entry 
looked at all the others assembled and croaked: “By jove, what a lot of 
parrots!” 

Green parrots lay eggs in captivity but never bring forth young. The 
wild birds do not construct a nest, but lay their two white eggs in the hole 
of a tree amid their native jungles. Male and female care for the eggs 
together. 

In chattering groups these parrots climb about the trees like acrobats, 
searching for nuts and palm fruit. In the wild state they probably do not 
drink water. Some scientists maintain that their vegetable food provides them 
with sufficient moisture, but other observers, of a more romantic turn of 
mind, assert that water-drinking is incompatible with their seafaring tradi¬ 
tion. Still others insist that they do drink water. Be that as it may, parrots 
have in some respects the most highly-perfected brains of the bird world. 
Their chief enemy is man, who catches them in nets and nooses and sells 
them as pets. 

Parrots have been well known to the western world ever since Alexan¬ 
der the Great’s conquests in India. The Romans kept them as pets and, 
like many Indian tribes of today, regarded them as a great table delicacy. 
One Roman aristocrat went so far as to feed them to his lions. 

122 


New York Zoological Society. 

YELLOW-SHOULDERED AMAZON PARROT (Amazon barbadensis). Length: 1 
foot. Range: Northern South America: Trinidad and Venezuela. 

Taken from the nest at an early age, these parrots make excellent pets. 
They can be taught to speak, to sing and whistle tunes. 



American Museum of Natural History. 


DOUBLE YELLOW- 
HEADED PARROT 
GROUP (Amazon ora- 
trix) . Length: 1 foot. 
Range: Central Amer¬ 
ica : Mexico to Hon¬ 
duras. 

This pair of parrots 
illustrates a typical do¬ 
mestic scene in the Cen¬ 
tral American jungle. 


123 





MACAWS 


At sunset in the Brazilian jungle, flocks of red and blue macaws take 
flight, wheeling and gliding through the trees as they separate into pairs 
and set out for their feeding places. The bright vermilion of their mantles 
and the light blue of their hind parts contrast boldly with the dark jungle 
foliage. In the morning they awaken and fly to a common roost, often a 
decayed tree providing many perches. Here they spread out their wings 
and tails until the sun’s rays have dried the heavy dew that has settled 
on them during the night. When dry and warm, they fly off in small parties, 
searching for the palm fruit that constitutes their food. During the noon¬ 
day heat they seek shelter deep in the jungle, and at evening they meet 
again at their drinking place, before once again they retire for the night. 
Their hours of feeding, drinking, drying and sleeping are quite regular. 

These birds are the most magnificent of parrots, distinguished by their 
brilliant colors, their great size, their two-foot tails, their immense hooked 
beaks and their deafening cries. 

When taken young, red and blue macaws become extremely "docile. 
They learn to talk and also to obey their master’s commands. Like other 
parrots, they have been known to live as long as one hundred years, out¬ 
living a generation or two of masters. 

To teach them to talk, the instructor should stand in an adjoining room 
where he can be heard but not seen and repeat the same words over and 
over again. 

When captured during adulthood, macaws are vicious birds. They 
have been known to demolish their cages, to pull off wallpaper and to eat 
the corners off billiard tables, all the while emitting most ferocious cries. 
Yet in view of the absence of all the objects mentioned in the macaw’s 
native habitat, its adaptability to new surroundings would seem to betoken 
unusual intelligence. An adult macaw has been known to kill a bull terrier 
by tearing its throat open after a prolonged battle. Even tame birds are 
temperamental, flying into a rage at the slightest provocation. Their food 
in captivity consists of oats, canary seed, corn, an occasional slice of carrot, 
turnip or tomato, and now and then a cracker. 

124 



New York Zoological Society. 

RED AND BLUE MACAW (Ara macao). Length: 3 feet. 
Range: Tropical South America. 

With the first rays of the morning sun, macaws 
leave their nests in hollow trees and gather at a sunny 
meeting place to warm themselves. The air of the grove 
resounds with their screams. 



BLUE AND YELLOW MACAWS (Ara 
arauana). Length: 3 feet. Range: 
Guianas to Colombia and south¬ 
ward to Paraguay. 








OWLS 


Owls vary considerably in size. The smallest is the tiny elf owl, a bird 
no larger than a sparrow. The elf owl lives in the giant cactus of Arizona 
in holes that the woodpeckers have dug. This little bird feigns death when 
caught. The great horned owl is one of the largest and fiercest of the 
group, often attaining a length of over two feet. The American screech 
owl resembles a small horned owl. The barn owl is well known for its loud 
cries and its strange heart-shaped face. The short-eared owls of Europe and 
America, unlike most owls are often seen flying in broad daylight over 
open marshes and meadows. Even more exposed to view is the hawk owl 
of the north who prefers to perch out in the open on a tall stump during 
the day. 

The long-eared owl, a denizen of dense pine and spruce forests, has 
the unusual habit of rising suddenly when approached and turning its head 
back while in flight to see what startled it. The snowy owl, of northern 
circumpolar distribution, diverges from the usual grays and browns of its 
relatives. Adapted to icy regions, it is largely pure white. This bird is known 
to travel great distances over the open ocean, alighting on ships hundreds 
of miles out at sea. The American Indians called Richardson’s owl, “the 
blind one,” as it is easily caught by hand in the daytime. Most owls live 
in trees, but the burrowing owl makes its home in a hole dug deep in the 
ground. The saw-whet owl is so-called because it utters a note like the 
sound of a saw being filed. The barred owl of eastern North America is 
frequently driven from its home by jays, cardinals, titmice and even tiny 
sparrows. Tawny owls are confined to the woodlands of Europe, Asia Minor, 
Palestine and Barbary. The eagle owls of Europe and Asia exceed the Ameri¬ 
can great horned owl in size and strength. One specimen lived sixty-eight 
years in captivity and was fully grown when captured. 

Owls: Great Horned Owl. 

Screech Owl. 


127 


GREAT HORNED OWL 


In many forests of eastern North America the night resounds with the weird 
calls of great horned owls. A single bird will set up the cry of oo-hoo-hoo> 
and a chorus of others in the woods will reply oo-hoo-hoo. Sometimes in 
the midst of the uproar an infuriated patriarch owl will silence all the 
others with a tremendous waugh-hoo-hoo. In addition to hooting, these noc¬ 
turnal birds have mastered a rarer note, a harsh scream, which is one of 
the most blood-curdling sounds to be heard of a forest night. 

As the owl’s great eyes are most sensitive to sun-glare, the great buff- 
black bird dozes by day in some shady grove. By night, despite its bulk, 
it flies through the trees without so much as a sound. Gifted with a robust 
frame, sharp claws and a curved, pointed beak, this owl is among the most 
belligerent of rapacious birds. 

Owls have been known to attack eagles, and they habitually eat mam¬ 
mals up to the size of rabbits, and when these are not available, poultry. 
In regions where rabbits, rats, mice, gophers and prairie dogs are common, 
the owl is highly beneficial to farmers; but where these are rare, this 
predacious bird destroys poultry as well as other kinds of birds, hawks 
included. Where the game is overplentiful, it will even kill more than it 
can eat, merely taking off the heads of its victims and leaving the bodies 
intact. The young of turkeys, grouse and geese come within the scope of its 
depredations. 

The great horned owl breeds throughout the winter and spring, usually 
in February and March. The male bird singles out a mate, flies around her, 
bows, snaps his bill and goes through other elaborate motions. At first the 
courted one is indifferent, but after a time she relents and joins in his 
antics. At length the pair goes house-hunting. Sometimes they renovate the 
nest of a crow, hawk or eagle. Often they build a bulky structure of sticks 
on a large branch not far from the trunk of a tree. However, they may just 
lay their eggs on the ground or in a rocky hollow. 

The eggs vary in number from two to four, and occasionally one or 
more of them fails to hatch because of frost. The incubation period lasts 
four weeks. 


128 



New York Zoological Society. 


GREAT HORNED OWL (Bubo virginianus). Length: 2 feet. Range: North America. 

The adult great horned owl is tamed with great difficulty. Woodmen are 
aware of its fierce and stealthy prowess and call it “the tiger of the air.” 



American Museum of Natural History. 


GREAT HORNED OWL. Although it 
has been known on occasion to kill 
an eagle, the great horned owl is 
sometimes mobbed by a flock of 
angry little blue jays. 


129 






SCREECH OWL 


A SEARCH in the hollow trees of an old apple orchard will often reveal the 
presence of screech owls, some of which occupy the same hollow for many 
years. When surprised in daylight, these birds will set up a chattering of 
their bills like the sound of castanets, and will act quite dazed. 

At nightfall, however, they come to life; their ear tufts stand erect, their 
yellow eyes open wide, and they set up their weird, melancholy whistling, 
which superstitious persons of all ages have regarded as an evil omen. And 
at this time they begin their rounds, searching out barns, farmyards, corn 
cribs and fields for mice and insects. Though they kill an occasional chicken, 
they are far more beneficial than harmful. Of two hundred and fifty-five 
screech owl stomachs examined by an investigator only one contained 
remains of poultry; thirty-eight contained other birds, ninety-one contained 
mice and the remainder, other small creatures such as lizards, fishes and 
insects. 

None the less screech owls are unjustly persecuted by some farmers. 
Their other enemies are crows, jays and squirrels, who steal their eggs. 
Sometimes by day a flock of jays and cardinals will attack a screech owl, 
drive it off and pursue it with much scolding and chattering. 

This bird has two color phases, one gray, the other reddish brown. 
These phases do not depend on age, sex or season, and both phases are 
frequently represented in the same brood. 

Screech owls in the northern United States mate in May, and in the 
South even earlier. They build no nest, but lay their four to six white eggs 
in tree hollows. One observer reports that they go through an elaborate 
courtship ritual. The female is perched in a dark, leafy tree, “apparently 
oblivious of the presence of her mate.” The male hops about from branch 
to branch, bows, snaps, flaps his wings, drags his tail, and does everything 
in his power to attract her attention. Now and then he winks. He groans 
inwardly and finally sits down as though in utter dejection. Only then does 
his mistress “lower her haughty head.” 

130 


New York Zoological Society. 

AMERICAN SCREECH OWLS (Megascops asio). Length: 10 inches. Range: East¬ 
ern North America. 

These birds are very useful to farmers, as they eat insects and rodents. 


Like other owls these birds have their eyes fixed in their sockets and 
must twist their necks to look to one side. It is popularly believed that if 
one walks around them, they will twist their neck till it breaks. A small 
hoy on testing this phenomenon found that the bird did twist its neck indefi¬ 
nitely, but that the neck failed to break. Later in life he discovered that 
“the neck is quicker than the eye.” After each revolution, the head twists 
back to the starting point so quickly that the human eye cannot follow the 
movement. 


131 



















OIL-BIRDS, FROGMOUTHS 
AND WHIP-POOR-WILLS 


The crow-like night-flying oil-birds of South America, the curious frog- 
mouths or mopokes of India and Australia, the potoos and owlet-frog- 
mouths of the Old World tropics, together with the insect-hunting nightjars, 
night-hawks and whip-poor-wills, which are cosmopolitan except in the 
eastern reaches of the Pacific Ocean, form a compact order of birds. 

The nightjars or goatsuckers, according to ancient legends, were be¬ 
lieved to suck the milk of goats, but modern observations do not confirm 
these legends. The food of these night-flying birds consists chiefly of moths 
and cockchafers, which they catch on the wing. 

Related to the nightjars are the night-hawks, which lay their eggs on 
level ground or flat roof tops, and the whip-poor-wills. 

Oil-Birds: Oil-Bird. 

Frogmouths: Frogmouth. 

W hip-poor-wills: Whip-poor-will. 


133 


OIL-BIRDS 


Large numbers of guacharos or oil-birds sleep throughout the tropical day 
in deep, rocky caverns. The indigestible seeds of the fruits eaten by these 
birds drop to the floor of their cavern home, and some of them sprout into 
shoots that are pale and colorless from lack of light. The thousands of 
somber-colored, sleeping birds and these pallid plants make the caverns 
seem like cities of the dead. 

At evening the birds awaken, clacking their beaks and croaking, and 
leave their caves to search the forest for food consisting of oily nuts, fruits 
and berries. Their legs and feet are comparatively weak, but their wings 
are large and strong, and they are good fliers. They are believed to fly on 
occasion as far as eighty miles for their food, but most often they remain 
within a restricted area. The oil-bird’s beak is strong and deeply notched; 
each of the large nostrils contains twelve stiff hairs. 

Guacharos are said to make a bowl-like nest of mud. Their eggs, 
two to four in number, are pure white and lustreless. The young contain a 
great proportion of fat, and while still in their nests are sought by the 
Indians, who catch them with the aid of torches and long poles. The enraged 
parents fly about the cave uttering deafening cries, but are unable to pro¬ 
tect their chicks. Fires are then lighted at the cavern’s mouth, and here 
the grease from thousands of young birds is melted down. The oil thus 
obtained is preserved in earthenware pots and used for lamps, for cooking 
and even as butter. The “butter” is said to be remarkably free from im¬ 
purities and not to grow rancid even in a year’s time. 

The young birds are also regarded as a table delicacy by the natives 
and many white men. Epicures dislike oil-birds because of an alleged 
“cockroachy” taste. 


134 


American Museum of Natural History. 


OIL-BIRD (Steatornis caripensis). Also called Guacharo . 
Length: 1% feet. Range: Northern South America. 

The oil-bird is so named because of the great 
masses of valuable fat which cover its body, especially 
when it is young. The flesh of this bird is relished by 
natives, and its oil is used in place of butter. 


FROGMOUTHS 


A naturalist tells of roaming with a friend through the Australian bush 
and seeing a frogmouth’s nest perched on a eucalyptus bough some twelve 
feet above the ground. The friend remarked that some boys apparently had 
thrown a stick across it and was much surprised when the “stick” took 
wing and flew away. The “stick” was a frogmouth, whose brown and gray 
protective coloring, coupled with the rough texture of its plumage, made it 
indistinguishable from the bark of the surrounding trees. 

These birds are active only at night; by day they sleep, perched on a 
eucalyptus bough, not crosswise like other birds, but lengthwise. This posi¬ 
tion probably makes them invisible to the sharp eyes of soaring hawks and 
other birds of prey. They sleep so profoundly that they can be captured 
by hand, and if awakened, they merely flap lazily to another limb, where 
they resume their slumbers. 

At night the frogmouth hunts locusts, grasshoppers and other insects. 
Not being swift enough to catch them on the wing, it creeps silently along 
tree branches and surprises them in their sleep. It also eats mice, and 
berries. 

On its nocturnal prowls the frogmouth utters a cry described by some 
as mo-poke and by others simply as a “harsh, indescribable cry.” Mo-poke, 
which is more pork with an aboriginal accent, is also the cry of the boobook 
owl. Both birds have enthusiastic partisans, each side arguing that its 
favorite is the one and original mopoke. 

These mopokes breed from August to January on low, swampy islands. 
The nest, usually situated on a broken eucalyptus or swamp oak bough, is 
a frail platform of twigs. The eggs, two in number, are oval in form and a 
spotless white. The male broods by night, the female by day. In seeking a 
nesting site, the frogmouths are careful to choose a branch matching their 
own coloring. 


136 




New York Zoological Society. 


FROGMOUTH (Podargus strigoides). Also called Mopoke. 
Length: iy 2 feet. Range: Australia, especially New 
South Wales. 

These nocturnal birds sleep so soundly during the 
day that even the sound of rifle-fire close by may not 
awaken them. At night they fly about uttering cries 
which sound like morepork , morepork! However, they 
feed not on pork, but on insects, small mice and little 
birds. 


137 







WHIP-POOR-WILL 


The inconspicuous, brownish-gray whip-poor-will spends its days con¬ 
cealed amid woods, rocks or dense brush, and for that reason is rarely 
seen. At nightfall it sallies forth in search of moths, grasshoppers, pismires 
and other insects. Some optimists are of the belief that it eats mosquitoes. 
From time to time in its hunt it pauses on a fence-rail or stump, where it 
gives voice to the note for which it is famous. Superstitious country folk 
in some isolated regions regard the call of the whip-poor-will as an evil 
omen, while others variously describe this whistling note as “exceedingly 
beautiful,” “incredibly melodious,” and “an offensive destroyer of slum¬ 
ber.” In any case, the call usually stops about midnight, except on bright 
moonlit nights, when it may go on until morning. Late in summer, when 
the young have been born, the call is rarely heard. 

The whip-poor-will mates in April or May, depending on the climate, 
laying two eggs on the ground or on a bed of leaves. It builds no nest, 
though pictures of the whip-poor-will’s nest can be found in many old bird 
books. The chicks are born covered with a soft, fluffy down of a yellowish- 
brown color which blends perfectly with the dead leaves about them. Their 
protective coloring makes them almost invisible even at a distance of a few 
feet. The young are fed at first on ants, or on beetles and large moths par¬ 
tially digested and regurgitated by their parents. After two months the 
youngsters are able to eat whole insects. 


138 


American Museum of Natural History. 

WHIP-POOR-WILL (Antrostomus vociferus). Length: 1 foot. Range: Eastern 
North America. 

The characteristic call of the whip-poor-will, which gives the bird its name, 
is heard throughout its native woodland on moonlit nights. These useful insect¬ 
eating birds are frequently confused with the night-hawk. 


139 




SWIFTS AND 
HUMMINGBIRDS 


The great speed with which these tiny birds can fly and the extremely 
rapid motion of their wings account for the names of swifts and humming¬ 
birds. The tiniest of birds are found in the hummingbird family, some indi¬ 
viduals weighing less than one-twelfth of an ounce and measuring hardly 
more than two inches. 

Hummingbirds are confined to the Americas and are found in greatest 
numbers on the slopes of the northern Andes in Colombia. The swifts are 
cosmopolitan in distribution and are found in Europe, southern Asia and 
the Americas. In India and China the swifts construct their nests with saliva. 
The natives of these countries use the nests for making soup. The migratory 
chimney swallows of the United States are also swifts that cement their nests 
with saliva. Crested swifts are confined to Asia. 

Swifts: Chimney Swift. 

Hummingbirds: Sword-billed Hummingbirds. 


141 


CHIMNEY SWIFTS 


Over large areas of the United States, farm house chimneys are occupied 
each summer by one or more families of chimney swifts. Previously these 
diminutive gray birds made their homes in hollow trees, but today civiliza¬ 
tion has provided them with more comfortable homes. They make a nest of 
twigs, which they cement to the brick or stone with their saliva. These twigs 
are torn off dead trees by the birds when in full flight. 

The nest of the chimney swift, rather resembling a basket, takes some 
eighteen days to build. Wet weather interferes with construction, dissolving 
the saliva-cement. The mother bird lays one brood each year, consisting of 
four or five (rarely six) eggs. The incubation period lasts eighteen to twenty- 
two days, male and female relieving one another in sitting on the eggs. The 
glands providing the glue for nest building are much swollen at nesting 
time; when the swelling goes down, cheek pouches are formed in which 
quantities of small insects can be packed. 

These birds are beneficial to farmers as they eat caterpillars and other 
insect pests. When prolonged rain clears the air of insects and drives the 
caterpillars to shelter, the swifts are apt to be doomed to starvation. In 
June, 1903, this occurred, and dead swifts were removed from the chim¬ 
neys of New England by the bushel. 

Chimney swifts are friendly, sociable birds. Their flight is exceed¬ 
ingly rapid, and rarely can they be overtaken, even by the swiftest falcons. 
They fly in zig-zags and curves, twittering shrilly, apparently never resting 
on trees or on the ground. Utterly fearless, they fly through tempests and 
thunderstorms. They drink and bathe in streams when on the wing, and 
occasionally one of them dips in too deep and is unable to rise again. They 
sleep clinging to a vertical surface such as the inside of their chimney home. 

On their migrations chimney swifts often spend their nights in dead 
trees. One tree is related to have held eight thousand or nine thousand of 
them at a time. When the birds entered or left the tree, the noise was said 
to be like “the sound of a large wheel revolving under a powerful stream.” 
It required more than half an hour for all the birds to leave. 

142 



American Museum of Natural History. 


CHIMNEY SWIFTS (Chaetura pelagica). Length: 5 y 2 
inches. Range: North America. 

The picturesque habit of the chimney swifts in 
making a community home in an unused chimney is a 
carryover from their ancestors, who resided in the trunks 
of hollow trees. 


143 






HUMMINGBIRDS 


The hummingbird spends the greater part of its time in the air, either 
darting about or “standing still in the air” in the vicinity of some flower. 
This latter feat is accomplished by means of the rapid vibrations of its 
wings. The hummingbird gets its name from the sound made by the vibra¬ 
tion. 

While sucking the nectar or drawing insects from a flower’s corolla, 
it regulates its position with its tail, which enables it to approach the flower 
or, in a manner of speaking, to fly backwards. The hummingbird, some¬ 
times no larger than a bumble bee, has a long, double tongue, useful in 
hunting insects. 

These little birds perch on trees and bushes when tired, rarely on 
rocks. They delight in preening themselves. Hummingbirds are unable to 
propel themselves by means of their legs when on level ground. When in 
the air, their wings move so fast that they are no more visible than the 
blades of an airplane propeller. The various species display every con¬ 
ceivable color or combination of colors, but these can be seen and appre¬ 
ciated only when the birds are motionless. 

Hummingbirds build a tiny nest of cotton-wool, spiders’ webs or other 
light substances. The nest is well built and usually cup-shaped; it is often 
covered with lichens for purposes of concealment. It may be situated on 
branches, or suspended from the tendril of a climbing plant. There is one 
record of the parent birds adding to the nest as the young increased in 
size. Two white eggs are laid. The young are born blind and naked. The 
female is most solicitous in caring for them, while the male is apparently 
indifferent. Male hummingbirds are very pugnacious. They will attack 
kingbirds and even hawks without apparent provocation, and they engage in 
furious fights among themselves. They will grasp one another’s beak and 
whirl one another, or they will chase about as if playing tag. 

In Mexico and South America hummingbirds are hunted for their 
beautiful skins. They are caught with bird-lime or killed by means of clay 
balls projected from blowpipes. 


144 


American Museum of Natural History. 

SWORD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRDS (Ensifera ensifera). 
Length: 6 inches. Range : Northern South America: 
Venezuela to Peru. 

The spear-like bill, as long as the body itself, is 
employed by these birds to extract insects from long, 
tubular flowers and blossoms. Some hummingbirds are 
no bigger than a bumble bee. About five hundred species 
are known, of which seventeen inhabit the United States. 


145 



TROGONS 


The quetzal, a trogon, inhabits the mountains of Central America and is 
considered one of the most beautiful of birds, vying with the birds of para¬ 
dise in brilliance of plumage. Trogons are birds of moderate size found 
in the tropics of both the New and Old Worlds. The beautiful feathers of 
the trogons are so loosely attached that they come off at the gentlest touch. 
Another distinctive feature of trogon plumage is the complete absence of 
down. Trogons seize their food on the wing. 

The colies or mouse-birds are somewhat related to the trogons. These 
birds are confined to the Ethiopian region. The name of this bird is 
probably derived from its mouse-like habit of hugging the boughs of trees 
as it proceeds along them. 

Trogons: Quetzal. 


147 


QUETZAL 


Deep in the mountain forests of tropical Mexico the quetzal perches motion¬ 
less, except for the gentle swaying of its rounded head. Its upper plumage 
is a bright metallic-green washed with gold; the sunlight, filtering through 
the trees, changes its color here and there to blue. Though this bird is no 
larger than a dove, its tail, hanging almost vertically, is a full three feet 
long. From time to time the quetzal jerks its tail feathers apart, showing 
their rich vermilion and crimson underside. 

Spying a fruit, the quetzal darts through the air to pluck it. Despite 
iis extended tail, its flight through the trees is swift and direct although it 
seldom flies more than a few feet. As it flies, its splendid colors flash in 
the sunlight. 

The tail plumes of this beautiful bird were used by the Aztec emperors 
as insignia of their rank. When caught, the birds were not allowed to be 
killed; their tail feathers were merely extracted. Since the Spanish conquest, 
they have been constantly hunted for their plumes, with the result that they 
are extinct in some regions and are limited in others to the most inaccessible 
heights. Today, however, they are protected by the Mexican government. 

In addition to fruit, the quetzal eats lizards, caterpillars, small crabs, 
insects and land snails. This royal bird frequently clings to a tree like a 
woodpecker; its feet are not well adapted for climbing and not at all for 
walking. Its note is a soft whee-oh , slowly increasing in volume. Some 
authorities say it is loud though not unpleasant, while to others it is dis¬ 
tinctly dissonant. 

The female quetzal lacks the elongated tail feathers of her mate and 
is in general less brilliantly colored. She lays two greenish-blue eggs each 
year. The young are a dull brown color, mingled with some white and 
black. 


148 


QUETZAL (Pharomacrus mocinno). Length: 1 foot. 
Range: Central America: Guatemala, Honduras and 
parts of Mexico. 

The shy quetzal, considered by many the most beau¬ 
tiful of birds, has a golden-green plumed tail a yard 
long. Aztec chieftains used these plumes as their insignia. 


New York Zoological Society. 





YOUNG QUETZALS. In 1937 the first 
captive quetzals were brought to 
the United States and deposited in 
good health in the New York Zoo¬ 
logical Park. It is anticipated that 
as they grow they will develop the 
remarkable tail plumes of the 
adult bird shown above. 

















KINGFISHERS, 
HORNBILLS, TOUCANS 
AND WOODPECKERS 


This large order contains such impressive birds as the widely distributed 
kingfishers; the West Indian todies; the Central and South American mot- 
mots; the Old World bee-eaters, rollers, hoopoes and hornbills; the ground- 
rollers of Madagascar; the wood-hoopoes of Africa; the jacamars and puff- 
birds of Central and South America; the tropical barbets; the honey-guides 
of the Old World; the Central and South American toucans; and the wood¬ 
peckers and piculets found everywhere except in Madagascar and Australia. 
The flickers are woodpeckers found in parts of the United States and 
Canada. 

Of the many legends concerning kingfishers one of the strangest is 
from Ovid who claimed that the birds made their nests on the waves. 
Darwin, who noticed the hare patches on the motmot’s tail, suggested that 
the bird itself nibbled off some of the barbs in order to appear more 
attractive to its mate. The rollers are so-called because of their peculiar 
rolling flight which resembles that of tumbling pigeons. Woodpeckers have 
developed the habit of climbing trees in a spiral path so that they will 
not miss a peck at any portion of the decaying wood. 


Kingfishers: 

Hornbills: 

Toucans: 
Woodpeckers: 


Belted Kingfisher. 

Laughing Jackass. 

Abyssinian Ground Hornbill. 
Lesser Hornbill. 

Toucan. 

Pileated Woodpecker. 


151 



KINGFISHERS 


A belted kingfisher perches motionless on a tree limb overhanging the 
water until its sharp eyes catch sight of a fish beneath the surface. Then it 
darts down like a bullet, totally submerging itself in its dive. A moment 
later it reappears, grasping its prey in its powerful beak. Returning to its 
perch, it kills the fish by beating it against the limb, and swallows it head 
first. The kingfisher rarely misses its catch. Unlike the osprey that feeds on 
fish, it does not make use of its claws for fish-catching. 

The kingfisher’s upper parts are slate-blue, while its breast is rust 
color. A legend explains that the kingfisher that was released from Noah’s 
ark flew toward the setting sun. On its back the blue sky was reflected, while 
its breast was scorched by the heat of the sun. 

Another legend regarding the kingfisher, known to the ancients as the 
halcyon , explains the origin of the expression “halcyon days.” Halcyons, 
Pliny records, lay and hatch their eggs in mid-winter, and during their 
brooding time, the sea is calm and navigable. 

The kingfisher’s nest is an excavation, usually in the bank of a stream 
or other body of water, though some nests have actually been found in 
railroad cuts. Male and female share the labor of excavating, digging with 
their large, powerful beaks and pushing out the loosened soil with their feet. 
The home consists of a passage about four inches in diameter and from 
four to twenty feet long, leading to a round chamber with a vaulted ceiling. 
The same burrow may be used for many seasons. The presence of a king¬ 
fisher’s nest may often be detected by the masses of regurgitated fish scales 
and bones in the vicinity. The mother kingfisher lays from five to seven 
eggs. The young are hatched naked and helpless with closed eyes. They 
grow slowly, and it is only after a month that they leave the nest. It is 
interesting to watch their early attempts at catching fish, which at first are 
quite unsuccessful. Their education in this important activity requires about 
two weeks of patient trial and error. 

152 



American Museum of Natural History. 

BELTED KINGFISHER (Megaceryle alcyon). Length: 1 foot. Range: North 
America. 

This bird is rarely found far from water, and is usually perched on some 
overhanging limb, on the lookout for the flash of a fish’s fin. With a quick plunge 
this “king of fishing birds” seizes its prey. 



New York Zoological Society. 


LAUGHING JACKASS (Dacelo gi- 
GAs). Length: 1% feet. Range: 

Australia and New Guinea. 

The gurgling, startling laugh 
of this bird an hour before sunrise 
each day, has earned it the familiar 
name of the “settler’s clock.” The 
natives call it “kookabura.” 


153 





HORNBILLS 


The Abyssinian ground hornbill seals his mate in a hollow tree in the 
nesting season. The male hornbill runs himself ragged during the two 
months of his mate’s incarceration, to provide her and the little ones with 
food, which he passes in through a slit left for the purpose. Inside the tree 
the female lays her eggs and hatches them. The young are born naked and 
helpless, and the mother bird cares for them until they are nearly or entirely 
fledged. Then the barrier is broken down, and the female, who has under¬ 
gone a complete moult, emerges in the pink of condition. The male is most 
conscientious in supplying his mate with food, and it is said that if he dies 
during this time from overwork or other causes, another male will come to 
take his place. This imprisonment protects the mother and her young from 
snakes and genets, the hereditary enemies of the hornbills. 

These black, turkey-like birds are usually found walking solemnly in 
pairs about dry swamps. Sometimes parties of twenty or more are seen in 
the early morning, feeding in a clearing. They are top-heavy in appearance 
because of their great bills, but in reality these are exceedingly light, being 
made of a strong but highly porous substance. The hornbills’ diet consists 
of frogs, reptiles and grasshoppers. At night these birds roost in trees. 
Their flight is slow and heavy, and they seldom fly more than a few hundred 
yards at a time. 

As the hornbills stray about the marshes, they frequently utter their 
curious cry, a deep sonorous grunt on one note, coo-coo-coo. The male calls 
first, and the female immediately replies with the same coo-coo, somewhat 
higher in pitch. They continue this calling for five or ten minutes, seem¬ 
ingly to keep track of one another when concealed among the rushes. 

The hunters in some African regions use the head and neck of a slain 
hornbill as a supposed aid in stalking. Treated with the proper “medicine,” 
they are attached to a hunter’s forehead. The hunter then moves in a crouch¬ 
ing position, giving an imitation of a hornbill. 

154 



New York Zoological Society. 

ABYSSINIAN GROUND HORNBILL (Bucorvus abyssinicus). Length: 31/2 feet. 
Range: Northern Africa. 

This hornbill, which pecks insects out of the dry sun-baked ground of 
Africa, is sometimes found as high as four thousand feet up, in the hills of 
Abyssinia. 



Ralph De Sola, Federal Writers’ Project. 


LESSER HORNBILL (Anthroxoceros con- 
vexus). Also called Indian Pied Hornbill. 
Length : 2 feet. Range: India. 

This seldom seen species was photo¬ 
graphed in the Barrett Park Zoo on Staten 
Island, which, like many of the more mod¬ 
ern institutions, frequently exhibits rare 
birds. 









TOUCANS 


The most prominent feature of this bright-colored bird is its beak, which 
in the adult is all of eight inches long, or one third of the bird’s en¬ 
tire length. At its base it is three inches wide. Though this protuberance 
looks clumsy and immensely heavy, in reality its walls are made of a light 
honeycombed substance so thin that it does not interfere with the toucan’s 
activities. A series of notches at the sides of the beak lend it a saw-toothed 
appearance. 

The toucan lives chiefly on fruits and seeds, and it is said to wreak 
great havoc on the Argentine orange groves. It also eats small birds and 
their young, and in captivity exhibits great enthusiasm for mice, reptiles 
and other animal nourishment, which it savagely tears to pieces. In the 
breeding season it eats caterpillars and other insects. In eating such small 
morsels, the toucan throws its head back and swallows them at one gulp. 
Sometimes it regurgitates food to be chewed again. 

The flight of the toucan is easy and graceful. The bird’s tail bones 
seem to be attached to a ball-and-socket joint, permitting great freedom of 
movement and sudden changes of direction. Sometimes flying toucans flap 
their wings noisily. 

Toucans are gregarious; in the morning and evening they gather in 
small flocks to bathe and feed, while during the heat of the day, they 
sit motionless in tall trees. When they feed in company, they post a sen¬ 
tinel, whose harsh warning screams can be heard a mile away. These birds 
grow extremely noisy in wet weather. 

Often toucans will “mob” an owl or other bird of prey, snatching at 
its tail feathers as they pursue it. 

Toucans can be tamed, and become amusing pets. 


156 


New York Zoological Society. 

TOCO TOUCAN (Ramphastes toco). Length: 2 feet. Range: South America: Brazil 
and Guianas, to northern Argentina. 

When feeding in groups, these queer birds post a sentinel. His cry of warn¬ 
ing, a sharp scream, can be heard for more than a mile. The big beaks of these 
fruit-eaters, honeycombed with air spaces, are exceedingly light. 




WOODPECKERS 


Like other woodpeckers, the pileated woodpecker is always in a hurry. 
Preoccupied with the serious business of getting a living and building a 
home, this dull black bird with the scarlet crest climbs hastily up the trunks 
of dead trees, strips off bark, pecks into the dead wood in search of insects 
and their eggs, hops on the ground looking for ant hills, or flies about 
seeking wild fruit and berries. It is a solitary, shy bird, incapable of being 
tamed. Its flight is direct but rather slow. 

The pileated woodpecker’s long, powerful bill contains a barbed 
tongue that can extend two and one-half inches beyond it. As the bill bores 
a hole in some dead tree, the long tongue, which is covered with a sticky 
saliva, draws out the insects. These birds are exceedingly beneficial to 
man for their insect destroying habits. They never attack live wood, though 
when a dead tree is not available instinct may lead them to subject a tele¬ 
graph or fence pole to the trip-hammer-like blows of their bills. So expert 
is the pileated woodpecker in stripping trees that it can peel ten feet of 
bark from a dead pine tree in fifteen minutes. 

This woodpecker’s note is a loud, nasal kuk-kuk. When two birds 
meet, they make a sound like wichew. Woodpeckers mate from April to 
June, when the male will pursue the female and seek to attract her by 
drumming with his bill against a tree. The woodpeckers nest in secluded 
swamps, digging an apartment out of a dead tree, usually at a great height. 
This home is invariably bedded with fine wood chips. Often a pair will 
return to the same nest year after year, cleaning out and sometimes enlarg¬ 
ing the old nest. The eggs are white and three to five in number. While the 
female sits on them, the male entertains her by drumming. He too takes 
his turn sitting on the eggs, though his mate makes no music to divert him. 
The young are fed by regurgitation and remain in the nest until full- 
fledged. 


158 



American Museum of Natural History. 

P/LEATED WOODPECKER (Ceophloeus pileatus). 
Length: iy% feet. Range: North America. 

The long barbed tongue of the pileated woodpecker 
serves as an excellent spear in impaling insect food. 
Woodpeckers are also fond of wild grapes. 


159 







PERCHING BIRDS 


This is the largest order of living birds, containing between five and six 
thousand species and representing the highest form of avian life. The 
nervous system of the perching birds is the most highly developed. They 
depend almost entirely upon their keen senses of hearing, sight and smell 
in their search for food and in detecting their enemies. Respiration and 
circulation are extremely rapid, resulting in a body temperature that is the 
highest for vertebrate animals, and providing an abundance of energy for 
rapid and sustained flight. Perchers have three toes in front and one hind 
toe which is long and is moved by its own tendon. 

Inasmuch as almost all members of this order are built along the same 
general lines and exhibit little variety in their mode of living, we have 
chosen only a few typical and highly specialized representatives. 

This great order includes all of the songsters, as well as some songless 
species. Typical songsters such as the nightingale, skylark, hermit thrush, 
brown thrasher, cardinal, etc., are equipped with a complex syrinx. This 
complex syrinx is an extension and evolution of the simple syrinx found 
in the throat of songless birds. The vocal organ is controlled by four or 
more pairs of muscles which help to produce some very human tones as 
well as providing suppleness and rhythm. 

Surely without the voices of these feathered creatures our seashores, 
swamps, streams, fields, woods and hills would be tomb-like with their 
everlasting silences. 


Perchers: Lyre Bird. 

Cassiques. 

Crows. 

Blue Jays. 

Bower Birds. 

Birds of Paradise. 
Canadian Chickadee. 


House Wren. 

Thrushes. 

Robins. 

Cedar Waxwing. 
Vireos. 

Starlings. 

Warblers. 


Weaver Birds. 

Sparrows. 

Bluebird. 

Blackbirds. 

Purple Grackle. 

Orioles. 

Cardinal. 


161 



LYRE BIRD 


The lyre bird has received its name from the male’s spectacular long tail, 
the outer feathers of which are so curved as to resemble the frame of a lyre, 
while the inner feathers run straight, resembling the strings. The female’s 
tail, which is long and wedge-shaped, lacks this distinction. The male’s 
lyre does not reach perfection until his fourth year. Both male and female 
moult annually after the breeding season, resuming their full plumage the 
next spring. 

The lyre bird’s song is liquid and pleasant; this bird can mimic the 
cries of other birds and even of animals common in its environment, such 
as the dingo and wild dog. 

Lyre birds prosper in captivity, although rarely exhibited. One male 
is reported to have learned to mimic the human voice, a violin, a piano, a 
cornet, a saw, a squealing pig and a crying child. The bird was able to 
utter complete phrases. 

In its native haunts in South Australia, the somber brown lyre bird 
is extremely shy and wary, often seeking out the most inaccessible gullies 
and ravines. It does not fly when in danger but runs away swiftly on its 
long powerful legs, holding its tail in a horizontal position and sometimes 
executing extraordinary leaps. Lyre birds are not gregarious. Each pair 
takes its own territory and assumes exclusive rights over the local snails 
and insects. One pair never trespasses on another’s domain. 

The lyre bird builds a large, well woven, dome-shaped nest either on 
the ground or in a tree fork, sometimes eighty feet high. An entrance is 
made at one side of the nest, and here the female deposits her single dark 
egg. In entering and in leaving the nest, she proceeds backward. The male 
meanwhile builds mounds of earth upon which he tramples, struts, and 
displays his tail. The incubation period lasts from August to September. 
The hen sits on the eggs, sometimes being relieved by her mate. 

The lyre bird has short, rounded wings and is a weak flier. To reach 
its nest, it hops lightly and noiselessly from limb to limb, sometimes half¬ 
flying. 

The flesh of the lyre bird is tough and unpalatable. 

162 


American Museum of Natural History. 

LYRE BIRD (Menura superba). Length: 3 feet. Range: 
Australia. 

Only the male has this beautiful lyre-like tail. Each 
male makes a small, flat mound of earth for himself, 
on which he struts and sings, showing his tail to ad¬ 
vantage. 


163 





CASSIQUES 


Despite the enemies with which its native jungle abounds—snakes, wild¬ 
cats and monkeys—the cassiques, tropical relatives of American orioles, 
do not trouble to conceal their nests. These long, purse-like structures, 
woven of grass or bark, are suspended from the tips of the highest limbs, 
which are in most cases so frail that no enemy can reach them. For added 
protection the cassiques invariably locate their homes near a nest of wasps, 
whose venomous sting is sufficient to kill a bird and incapacitate any tres¬ 
passer. It is not known whether the wasps live at peace with their avian 
neighbors or whether the birds are merely protected by their heavy, scaly 
plumage. 

A hundred cassiques’ nests are sometimes found hanging near the 
top of a single tall tree. Despite the smallness of the side entrances to the 
nests the birds enter in full flight, creating quite a stir, which, however, 
fails to disturb the wasps. In the evening the colonies of cassiques are 
exceedingly active, flying about, crying discordantly and finally diving into 
the nests. Some of their cries, taken individually, are considered quite 
musical, but when the whole colony sings at once, the tones clash. 

The crested cassique is black in color, with dark-brown underparts. 
Both the beak and the luxuriant tail feathers are yellow. Its head is sur¬ 
mounted by a thin crest. 

In the spring the male goes through a complex display, lowering his 
head, slapping his wings together and opening his plumage fan-wise. At 
the same time he utters a loud crackling noise, said to resemble the sound 
of a tree falling in the forest. The female lays two greenish-blue eggs, 
spotted with dark brown. 


164 



American Museum of Natural History. 

CRESTED CASSIQUES (Ostinops decumanus). Length: 1 
foot. Range: Tropical South America. 

One hundred or more of the bag-like nests of these 
birds may be seen attached to the limbs of a single tree. 
Some of the nests are a yard long. 


165 




GROWS 


The crow is generally regarded as man’s enemy. Its black color has made 
it a bird of evil omen like the larger raven, and its appetite is known 
to be indiscriminate and insatiable. Actually, its fondness for corn, poultry, 
eggs and young lambs does justify to an extent the farmer’s hatred. More¬ 
over, the crow is unimpressed by scarecrows and is exceedingly difficult to 
shoot, possessing an uncanny instinct as to the purpose and range of guns. 
As a consequence bounties are offered for these birds in many states. 

On the other hand, crows are also beneficial to man. They eat grass¬ 
hoppers, locusts, caterpillars and other insects harmful to crops. A farmer 
on the island of Martha’s Vineyard offered a bounty of fifty cents apiece 
for crows, with the result that his grass stopped growing, its roots eaten 
by an insect grub which the crows had previously destroyed. 

Crows make their nests in trees, often as high as sixty feet above the 
ground. The nests are large, well-built structures of sticks, comfortably 
lined with shreds of grape or squash vine, cedar bark, grass, seaweed, 
leaves, rags or fur. In many instances three crows nest together. Whether 
this indicates polygamy or polyandry is still a moot question. All three 
help in the nest building and incubating, and live together harmoniously. 
From three to eight eggs are laid, although it is thought that the larger 
number is laid by two females. 

The young require constant feeding and attention. Parents are par¬ 
ticularly valiant in defending their young against eagles, hawks, owls and 
raccoons. 

When taken young, crows make amusing and mischievous pets. They 
can learn to talk almost as well as parrots. 

Henry Ward Beecher once said: “If men wore feathers and wings, a 
very few of them would be clever enough to be crows.” Crows have a highly 
developed social instinct. A bird which fell into the sea and was unable to 
rise was helped to shore first by one comrade, then by others. Crows quickly 
learn where they are safe from guns. Over Puget Sound, where they have 
the protection of the law, they have grown extremely tame, 

166 


Wr. J 



CROW (Corvus brachyrhynchos). Length: 11/2 feet. Range: North America. 

Because of its liking for corn this best known of American birds has many 
human enemies. But it really helps the farmer by killing dozens of harmful 
insects. 



WHITE CROW. A rare sight is the 
white crow. It is an albino crow 
lacking the pigment found in its 
black brothers. 

New York Zoological Society. 


16 ? 






BLUE JAY 


The beautiful and talkative blue jay devotes a great part of his life to 
bearing out those axioms about honor among thieves and good in the midst 
of evil. For these garrulous and audacious little birds, who live by robbery, 
murder and cannibalism, are most attentive to their young and sedulous 
in the care of their aged and infirm. One group of blue jays, indeed, has 
been observed caring for an old and partially blinded bird. 

Usually inhabiting woodlands, farms and parks, blue jays live on 
insects, snails, grasshoppers, nuts, fruits and grains. They have been known 
to kill and eat young pheasants and poultry. Blue jays utter a wide variety 
of calls and whistles and are equally adept at screaming, chattering and 
chirping. They are also excellent mimics and delight in imitating the notes 
of redtails and sparrow hawks to cause confusion among these birds. They 
migrate according to the availability of nuts, abandoning regions where 
this dietary item has given out. These and other staples are stored for 
winter use. 

Sometimes a clan of blue jays attacks a screech owl and drives it 
out of the woods. But, understanding the limits of safety, the jays do not 
pursue their enemy too far. They will also “mob” the most dangerous 
hawks, being careful to leave open a line of retreat into a dense thicket 
where the hawk cannot follow them. The din created by the jays in these 
combats often can be heard half a mile away. 

The blue jay, in nesting, prefers evergreens, but often contents itself 
with deciduous trees. A new nest is built each year from five to fifty feet 
above ground, and it is carefully wrought of sticks and twigs and lined 
with bark and feathers. Early in spring the birds begin to carry sticks for 
the nest. The sticks are never taken from the ground, but are gathered from 
trees. The pale olive-green eggs number from four to seven. After the first 
is laid, the birds cease their usual noise. Incubation requires from fourteen 
to seventeen days, and the female bird is so devoted to this task that she 
will frequently remain sitting despite intrusion. If a cat approaches the 
nest, the jays are quite capable of driving it away. 

168 


Claude W. Leister, New York Zoological Society . 

BLUE JAY AND YOUNG (Cyanocitta cristata). Length: 1 foot. Range: North 
America. 

Nothing arouses the sporting blood of these birds more than the sight of 
a hawk or an owl. The blue-coated mob swarms around its larger prey with 
deafening shrieks and usually succeeds in driving off the marauder. 



American Museum of Natural History. 


BLUE JAY NESTING . Blue jays like 
to nest in evergreens. Their nests 
are loosely constructed of twigs, 
bark, weeds and pine needles. 


169 




BOWER BIRDS 


Amid deep, luxuriant brush near the coast of Australia the satin bower 
birds build their bowers or playgrounds. The base of these structures con¬ 
sists of a somewhat convex platform of interwoven sticks; the bower itself 
being a wall made of more slender and flexible twigs. The bower is not used 
as a nest, and indeed the nests of these birds have rarely been seen. 

Some observers state that the bowers are built by the females, but it is 
the brilliant, satiny-blue males who use them most. To this spot they bring 
all sorts of gay-colored articles: feathers, stones, shells, or, if in the neigh¬ 
borhood of cities, discarded street-car tickets, empty bluing bags and stolen 
ornaments. They always show a marked preference for blue in choosing 
their variegated articles, perhaps because that is their own color. 

In the bower the birds hop about with mincing steps and drooping 
wings. Now and then they will pick up an ornament and drop it before 
another bird, all the while uttering low, humming sounds. The satin bird 
is something of an artist. Mixing charcoal taken from the natives’ fires, 
with saliva, he paints the walls of his bower almost every day. A strip of 
bark is held in his beak so that the paint is forced through the sides of 
his bill. 

Originally the bowers may have been devised only for courting, but 
they are now apparently used for mere play, as they are occupied for fully 
ten months of the year. According to A. J. Marshall, the dull, gray-green 
females rarely approach them. In the nesting season, it is the females who 
take care of all the domestic drudgery. 

The bower birds are clever in mimicking the calls of other birds. They 
eat seeds, berries, wild figs and, to a lesser extent, insects. They are not 
migratory, but change their location from time to time depending on the 
food supply. The male is capable of a pleasant, liquid note, but like his 
mate he can also utter a harsh, guttural cry. In autumn the bower birds 
come together in small flocks near steep river banks, 

170 


New York Zoological Society. 

SATIN BOWER BIRD (Ptilerhynchus holosericus). Length: 1 foot. Range: 
New South Wales, Australia. 

These architects of the bird world construct beautiful play houses or court¬ 
ing bowers, lining them with shells and bits of colored glass. After courtship 
they leave their bower and build a nest. 



New York Zoological Society. 


BOWER BIRDS’ BOWER. The bower 
is the center of courtship and play 
carried on between the sexes. Male 
birds build the bowers. Occasion¬ 
ally a female will make a clumsy 
attempt to build one, only to have 
it destroyed by her more adept 
mate. 


171 








GREATER BIRD OF PARADISE 


Early in the sixteenth century two skins of the greater bird of paradise 
were presented to the King of Spain by a navigator. The skins were pre¬ 
pared in the native fashion, with both wings and feet removed. Their beauty 
made a deep impression on the romantic imagination of the time; and it 
was long thought that these birds, lacking wings, must float through the 
air supported by their trailing plumes. It also came to be believed that 
the bird of paradise fed on dew and nectar and that the female laid her 
eggs on the male’s back. 

Two and a half centuries later, when Linnaeus was attempting to name 
and catalogue all known creatures, the legend as to this species’ lack of loco¬ 
motor organs persisted, though Linnaeus himself may have known better. 
At any rate he conferred on it the name of “apoda,” or legless. Not until 
1862 were living birds of the species brought to Europe, to explode the 
myth. 

During the first year of life both male and female of the species are 
an almost uniform coffee-brown in color. After this, however, the males 
gradually change, until in their fourth year they complete the splendid 
plumage for which they are famed. Their general color is then bright 
reddish-brown; forehead, cheeks and throat are metallic-green, while the 
crown and nape are bright yellow. Long ornamental plumes grow from 
their flanks, just below the shoulders. These are a deep golden-yellow, 
changing to pale brown at the top. The two central tail feathers, known as 
wires, are without barbs and sometimes as much as thirty inches long. 

Despite their great beauty, the birds of paradise are more closely 
related to crows and jays than to any other species. Little is known of them 
in their native state, except that they are omnivorous, eating many varieties 
of fruits and insects; and that the males engage in a spectacular ceremony 
prior to the mating season. Choosing a spreading tree with large scattered 
leaves, twenty or more of them will play about, raising their wings, extend¬ 
ing their necks and elevating their splendid plumes, which they keep in 
constant vibration. Now and then they fly from branch to branch, filling 
the air with waving plumes. 


172 


New York Zoological Society . 

GREATER BIRD OF PARADISE (Paradisea apoda). Length: 1 y 2 feet. Range: Aru 
Islands, west of New Guinea. 

Birds of paradise, as their name indicates, are remarkably handsome. They 
inhabit the Papuan region. The male in the picture has a golden-yellow head, 
a green throat and golden plumes. 



ACADIAN CHICKADEE 
(Penthestes hudsoni- 
cus). Length: 5 inches. 
Range: Eastern Canada 
and northeastern United 
States. 

This brown-capped 
titmouse derives its 
name from its call note, 
chick-a-dee. 


173 










HOUSE WREN 


When the male house wren returns north in spring, he begins to sing in 
a musical frenzy which sets him trembling in every fibre. Then suddenly 
he stops and sets about the work of home-making. 

He becomes feverishly active, collecting sticks with which he fills 
all the nesting sites in the vicinity. His favorite nesting spots are wood¬ 
pecker holes, hollow trees, baskets, and man-made bird houses. By this time 
the females have arrived, and he looks around for a mate. 

The female of the species is shrewish, perhaps because of the male’s 
incurable disorder. Usually her first act is to throw all the sticks out of 
the nesting site she chooses. The male then goes on with his singing, while 
the female builds the actual nest, lining the twigs and branches with feathers, 
cloth or cocoons. 

Wrens are active and nervous little birds, constantly hopping and 
bobbing about, and they are highly belligerent despite their small size. 
Their food consists chiefly of insects, but they also eat the eggs of other 
birds. When there is nothing upon which they can expend their irrepressible 
energy, they fight among themselves or build extra nests. Sometimes a male 
will build a rough, uncouth nest near the tidy one occupied by his mate; 
and often a male who has failed to secure a mate occupies his enforced 
leisure with nest-building for nest-building’s sake. 

Despite their social irregularities, wrens are devoted parents. They 
protect their young and feed them constantly, sometimes once every two or 
three minutes. In some cases wrens mate for life, but often a male will 
abandon his brooding mate and nest with another female nearby. The 
female, after hatching out her six to eight eggs, may leave the care of her 
nestlings to her mate and fly away with a new lover. Occasionally a male 
mates with two females, dividing his attentions between the two and sing¬ 
ing diplomatically where both females can hear him. 

Wrens are useful to farmers as destroyers of insect pests. Their chief 
enemies are cats, blue jays, crows, squirrels and bad weather. 

174 



American Museum of Natural History. 

HOUSE WREN (Troglodytes aedon). Length: 5 inches. Range: Eastern North 
America. 

In spring the wren nests near country houses and barns, under eaves, in 
bird boxes and old jugs. This well-known visitor sometimes makes itself ob¬ 
noxious by eating the eggs of other birds. It aids farmers and gardeners, how¬ 
ever, by destroying hundreds of harmful insects. 


175 


THRUSHES 


The gentle and lovable wood thrush ordinarily makes its home in dark, 
damp woods, but often this tawny, black-spotted bird emerges to sing its 
calm, rippling song on a well-shaded lawn. The song consists of a liquid 
quirt and a sharp pit-pit. 

The wood thrush is highly migratory, wintering as far south as Mexico 
and the Canal Zone. It makes its nest in young trees or bushes, of leaves, 
twigs and rootlets with an inner wall of mud and a lining of finer rootlets. 
Its eggs, from three to five in number, are greenish-blue, occasionally 
flecked with brown. Wood thrushes live on insects, fruits and berries. 


ROBINS 


The related robins are said to have a highly developed language, capable 
of expressing alarm, suspicion or caution. They can signal companions to 
take wing. These black, red-breasted birds act as seed dispersers. They eat 
the berries of cedar, juniper and wild cherry; the pulp is digested, while 
the seeds pass through the digestive tract. Farmers, long puzzled over the 
fact that long rows of cedar trees often sprang up along a rail fence sepa¬ 
rating two pastures or farms, discovered that the robins perched on the 
fence were the “planters.” 

Robins awake and sing earlier in the morning than any other birds. 
Their song, as they are very sensitive to atmospheric conditions, often 
presages a coming shower. A passing cloud that cuts off the sunlight for a 
moment will often bring forth a burst of melody from these birds. Most 
robins fly south in loosely-shaped flocks in cold weather, large numbers of 
them wintering in Florida, where they live on palmetto and mistletoe 
berries. In March the males arrive first at their northern breeding ground. 
Throughout the summer the males and the young of the first brood often 
roost apart, returning now and then to their nests to see how mother robin 
is doing with the second brood. These roosts frequently contain many hun¬ 
dreds of birds. The nests are similar in construction to those of the thrush. 

176 


American Museum of Natural History. 

WOOD THRUSH AND YOUNG (Hy- 
locichla mustelina). Length: 8 
inches. Range: North America. 

This gentle bird usually avoids 
the settlements of humans, pre¬ 
ferring the low woodlands. At times, 
however, it will leave its secluded 
habitat to play about on shady 
lawns. Its song is melodious and 
clear. 




New Yoi Ic Zootoyical Society. 


ROBIN ON NEST (Turdus migratorius) . Length: 
10 inches. Range: North America. 

Harbingers of spring, robins come in 
March to northern lawns and gardens. In Sep¬ 
tember they gather for the journey south. The 
little mother in this picture nested between the 
feet of a bronze flamingo on the entrance gate 
of the New York Zoological Park. 


American Museum of Natural History. 

ROBIN GROUP. After the first broods 
are ready to fly in June, the robins 
begin to congregate nightly. Each 
morning they scatter in search of 
food. 





CEDAR WAXWING 


The cedar waxwing breeds in June and July, later than most other birds. 
In the early spring, the graceful ash-colored birds can be seen flying about 
in small flocks, often in the company of goldfinches. They fly for short 
distances, barely grazing the tree-tops, and then pause for a meal of cedar 
berries or insects. They hardly can be said to sing, but now and then they 
utter a muted whistle or a series of short peeps, described by Thoreau as 
a “beady note.” The plumage of the waxwing is soft and smooth. Its slaty- 
gray wings are tipped with horny red ornaments which resemble pellets of 
sealing wax. 

The cedar bird’s nest is a bulky affair of grass, leaves, moss and 
sometimes mud, located in trees at an elevation of from five to twenty feet. 
The eggs, three to five in number, are pale bluish-gray with black or 
dark-brown markings. In caring for the young, these birds show unusual 
tenderness and devotion. At the approach of an intruder their crests tremble 
in excitement. Often the male bird mounts guard on the tip of an evergreen 
tree, keeping vigil for hours and now and then flying into the air for a 
snack of passing insects. Cedar waxwings are considered to be among the 
most gentle and delicate of birds. 

Waxwings migrate irregularly, following the food supply. They winter 
throughout most of the United States. 


178 



American Museum of Natural History. 


CEDAR WAXWING (Bombycilla cedrorum). Length: 7 
inches. Range: North America. 

The waxwing guards its nest with great care. The 
subdued notes of its call string out into the air like 
beads. The tips of its quill feathers are flecked with 
red as if ornamented with sealing wax. 


179 





VIREOS 


On long summer days when most birds are silent, the red-eyed vireo 
keeps up an incessant song. This common bird is also known as “the 
preacher,” because of its method of delivery. It seems first to make a point 
in a few words and then to pause for the audience to reflect. One writer 
describes “the preacher” as repeating, with pauses between sentences: “You 
see it—you know it—you hear me—do you believe it?” Each phrase is 
ended with a rising inflection. 

The vireo lives on insects, which it laboriously digs from crevices 
in the bark of trees or picks from the undersurface of the leaves. It often 
sings as it works; sometimes it utters a plaintive, nasal note, sounding 
like whang. 

It can be recognized easily in shade trees or orchards, as well as in 
the woods, by its slaty gray cap, a white line bordered by black over the 
eye, and the red eyes which give it its name. Its general coloring is a dusky- 
olive. 

The vireo weaves its nest of dead sticks, strips of bark, paper and 
plant down, and hangs it, like a suspended cup, from forked branches. The 
inside is lined with finer strips of bark and plant tendrils. 

Three to four white eggs with a few black spots are laid. 


180 




American Museum of Natural History. 

RED-EYED VIREO (Vireo olivaceous). Also called Preacher, Greenlet. Length: 
6 inches. Range: North America. 

Incessantly chattering, this orator of the woods closes a phrase with a rising 
inflection as if awaiting a reply. 


181 




STARLINGS 


Sometimes these birds will roost amid rushes by the water’s edge, pack¬ 
ing down the plants by the weight of their numbers. The singing of large 
groups is an indescribable chattering, but the individual male starling 
utters a clear, high, long-drawn-out whistle. Not content with their own 
tunes, starlings also imitate the songs of many other birds. Starlings are 
walking birds—not hoppers. 

Though these birds are now common in the United States east of the 
Mississippi, they are not native to this country. Sixty of them brought from 
western Europe were released in Central Park, New York City, in 1890, 
and forty the following year. Since then they have multiplied tremendously 
and have adapted themselves to the entire eastern and middle-western 
regions of the United States. They do not, in this country, engage in regu¬ 
lar migrations. They show, however, some tendency to move southward in 
winter. 

In the fall starlings often leave the countryside for the cities, where 
they crowd together in church towers, and in crannies where their large 
numbers can keep them warm. Some observers have counted twenty-five 
hundred to three thousand starlings in a single church tower. By day they 
repair to the parks and the outlying country to forage for berries and 
insects, but at night they return to the comforts of the city. In some cities, 
particularly Washington, D. C., they are so numerous as to be looked upon 
as pests. An ornithologist’s dictum has it that “it’s an ill bird that bodes 
nobody good,” and because starlings destroy insects they are generally 
regarded as beneficial. 

The country homes of starlings are nests of grass and twigs in a 
woodpecker’s hole or in a hollow tree. They breed in April, and by the 
middle of May the young are already uttering their harsh guttural food- 
cry. The eggs, four to six in number, are pale blue. At the end of May a 
second brood is sometimes raised. By that time the young of the first brood 
have already begun to form the flocks which by late summer may contain 
many thousands of birds. 


182 


3 



New York Zoological Society. 

EUROPEAN STARLINGS (Sturnus vulgarus). Length: 8 inches. Range: Northern 
Hemisphere. 

Gifted with an astounding vocal range, the starling imitates almost any 
sound. It fares equally well in city or country. It was introduced to New York 
City in 1890 and since then has spread westward to the Rocky Mountains. Among 
the Greeks the starlings were known as crop-destroyers. The fields were guarded 
by men armed with slings to frighten away these birds. 










WARBLERS 


The yellow warbler easily finds his way to the heart of a canary lover, 
for his song, though not unusually melodious, resembles that of the canary. 
The cheerful wee-chee-cherwee, is often heard in parks or gardens. 

The yellow warblers are among the first birds to leave the northern 
latitudes in the fall, among the last to return in spring. In straggling flocks 
they migrate as far southward as Brazil and Peru, usually flying at night. 
Guided by unerring instinct, they never lose their way, but occasionally 
dash themselves to death against lighthouses, apparently attracted to the 
light. 

Sometimes, in the company of other migrating warblers, they fly by 
day from tree to tree, gleaning insects as they go. The golden-yellow adult 
males, chirping merrily, fly ahead, while the duller-colored females and 
the yearlings bring up the rear. These birds are highly beneficial to man, 
as they eat many crop-destroying insects. Because they feed exclusively 
on insects yellow warblers cannot tolerate cold weather, which deprives 
them of their diet. 

The yellow warbler’s nest is built in fruit or shade trees or in bushes, 
usually near water. It is made of fine grasses, hair and much plant down, 
neatly and compactly felted together. The eggs, four or five in number, 
are bluish-white, marked with cinnamon. 


184 


American Museum of Natural History. 

YELLOW WARBLER (Dendroica aestiva). Also called Wild Canary or Yellow 
Bird. Length: 5 inches. Range: North America. 

In the summer the bright greenish-yellow coat of this warbler is com¬ 
monly seen about houses and shrubbery. 



WEAVER BIRDS 

Carrying huge quantities of grass to a branch of the camel-thorn or mimosa 
tree, the weaver birds construct an umbrella-shaped mass, resembling a 
miniature haystack, which they regard as a community apartment house. 
The construction is almost solid, but the undersurface is honeycombed 
with little holes having no communication with one another. These are used 
not only for incubating the weaver bird’s eggs but also for shelter against 
the wind and rain. Each nest is warmly lined with feathers. Twenty or 
more of these sociable, scaly-brown, red-necked birds gather together in 
the nesting season to build the common habitation. 

Every year the “haystacks” are added to until there is no more room 
on the limb, or until the tree gives way beneath the weight. The young birds 
set to work on nests of their own in bushes near the parental home. Three 
or four eggs are laid. 

The cocks of this species are not always as congenial as their nesting 
habits would indicate. They are extremely pugnacious and often fight one 
another to the point of exhaustion. When the weaver birds are not occupied 
with such domestic concerns, they fly about in great flocks in search of 
grass seeds, berries and beetles. 


186 



New York Zoological Society. 


RED-NECKED WEAVER BIRD (Ploceus cuculatus). Length: 5 inches. Range: 
Africa. 

Weaver birds are rated among the best architects of birddom. Their intricate 
nests reveal unusual skill and intelligence. 



American Museum of Natural History. 


NEST OF WEAVER BIRD (Philetaerus socius). 
Range: Africa. 

Several hundred birds combine to build a gi¬ 
gantic grass structure. This is made up of individual 
rainproof compartments or nests. 






SPARROWS 


The English sparrow was introduced into North America and the British 
West Indies in 1851, on the supposition that it would destroy potato bugs, 
as well as various insects harmful to trees. Its sponsor claimed that it was 
successful in this, but very soon its belligerent habits drove away other birds 
which had previously eaten the tree caterpillars. When left alone, the tree 
caterpillars became more destructive than the insects eaten by the sparrows. 

In the horse and buggy era, the sparrows prospered and multiplied 
exceedingly, finding a ready food supply in undigested seeds. “If,” say 
old New Yorkers, “you never saw a bevy of sparrows twittering on the 
cobblestones of Canal Street, you have not lived.” 

In the country, however, they continue to eat corn, vegetables and 
fruit, and generally to victimize the farmer. These pugnacious little birds 
drive other birds away and steal their eggs. In large numbers they assault 
species three or more times their size, particularly robins. Where they are 
fewer in numbers, they drive other birds away by the “psychological” 
method of following them around. The victim soon seems to succumb to a 
persecution complex, imagines himself pursued by the secret police, and 
leaves the neighborhood. English sparrows have been characterized as “dis¬ 
reputable,” “pernicious” and “murderous.” They are in short, public enemy 
number one of the bird world. 

Sparrows fight even among themselves. In the mating season three or 
four males vie for the affections of a female, and it is the most vocal and 
most warlike who wins her. 

The grass and straw nest, lined with feathers, is untidy, filthy and 
often teeming with vermin. Sometimes it is balanced on the limb of a tree, 
and then it is large and dome-shaped with the entrance on one side. When 
it is placed in a hollow tree or a hole in some building, it is much smaller. 
In their search for nest lining, sparrows have been known to snatch hair 
from live dogs. Sparrows often steal from one another. One naturalist tells 
how a female stole a goose feather, much prized by these birds, from a 
next-door neighbor’s nest. Their eggs number four to nine and require two 
weeks for incubation. Two or three broods are raised yearly. 

188 





American Museum of Natural History. 

MALE ENGLISH SPARROW (Passer domesticus). Length: 6 inches. Range : Cos¬ 
mopolitan in temperate climates. 

This bird destroys grain and fruit and drives away other birds. It was 
introduced into North America in 1851 to combat an insect pest—the potato 
bug. 



American Museum of Natural History. 


BLUEBIRD ( Sialia si- 
alis) . Length : 7 inches. 
Range: Northeastern 

North America. 

This harbinger of 
spring is one of the best 
liked birds. It nests in 
tree holes but is some¬ 
times driven out by the 
imported English spar¬ 
row. 


189 


BLACKBIRDS 


Flying silently with the precision of a winged army, flocks of as many 
as several thousand red-winged blackbirds make their way north or south 
depending on whether it be spring or autumn. When they turn or swoop, 
the entire flock executes the maneuver at the same instant. 

When these birds feed on the ground, those at the rear, when they 
have exhausted their portion of insects or grain, take wing and fly in a great 
whirr over the heads of their companions to alight ahead of them. This 
process is in turn continued by the new rear guard until the flock has 
advanced to a wood or other barrier. Then all take wing at once and fly 
to the next field. 

These birds nest in swamps, mating in April and May. The jet black 
males pursue the females or perch before them, raising their wings and 
bowing in such a manner as best to set off their brilliant red epaulettes. 
At the same time they utter their note, kong-quer-kee. 

The nests are situated on tussocks, on bushes at the border of a marsh, 
or simply in the grass. The materials used in its construction are various 
grasses and barks in a wet state. For lining fine grass tops and, if available, 
horsehair are used. It requires about one week for the nest to be built 
and to dry sufficiently for use. There may be hundreds of such nests in a 
single marsh. Each female lays from two to five eggs. Sometimes a male 
secures two or three mates, and all live happily in nests side by side. When 
the eggs hatch out, the marsh becomes alive with the young, who crawl 
about before they are able to fly. The chicks often fall into the water, but 
usually manage to get out again while their fathers perch on high trees 
and keep a lookout for intruders. The males are courageous enough to 
attack a bittern or even a hawk to defend their young. 

These blackbirds are valuable to farmers for their destruction of 
caterpillars, canker-worms, weevils, beetles, grasshoppers and other insect 
pests. They are destructive, however, for their grain-eating habits, particu¬ 
larly in the West where they have been known to devour whole crops. A 
favorite dish of theirs is wild rice. The good they do is generally believed 
to outweigh the harm, and they are protected by law in almost all states. 

190 



American Museum of Natural History. 


RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD (Agelaius phoeniceus). 
Also called Swamp Blackbird. Length: 9^2 inches. 
Range: Eastern North America. 

In late April these birds return to the same places 
they have occupied for years. July finds them in the 
marshes eating wild rice. 



American Museum of Natural History. 


PURPLE GRACKLE (Quiscalus qui- 
SCULa). Length: I foot. Range: 
Eastern North America throughout 
coastal region. 

Grackles prey upon the eggs 
of small birds such as robins, 
thrushes and bluebirds. This bird’s 
metallic coloring is very attractive. 


ORIOLES 


In spring Baltimore orioles fly northward in high, continuous flight, first 
the males, and a few days later, the females. The period of courtship begins 
at once. The male sits on a limb near his chosen mate, raises himself to 
his full height, spreads his tail and partly raises his wings to display his 
orange breast and black front. Then he bows to let the black, white and 
orange of his upper plumage shine in the sun, uttering meanwhile his 
sweetest, most supplicating notes. His methods must be effective, for orioles 
are believed to mate for life. 

Orioles most often make their homes by the roadside, near houses, or 
at the edge of fields, seldom taking to the woods. They prefer elm trees for 
nesting. The female builds the nest while the male spends his time whistling. 

The nest is a neatly-woven purse-shaped structure of vegetable fibre, 
suspended from a bough at an elevation of from ten to ninety feet. Usually 
it is open at the top, but sometimes it is covered over with leaves, and then 
the opening is at one side. The inside is lined with moss, plant down or 
rags and other materials of human origin. In choosing the latter, the oriole 
rejects bright-colored objects, showing a preference for gray and white. 
While weaving the outer frame of her nest, the female often suspends her¬ 
self head downward. 

Orioles return year after year to the same nesting site, sometimes 
repairing their old nests or taking material from them for use in con¬ 
structing a new one. In the South they build on the north side of a tree; 
in the cooler regions on the sunny side. 

Baltimore orioles are highly effective insect destroyers, killing many 
more than they eat. Among their chief victims are moths, caterpillars of all 
sorts, beetles and their eggs. Their worst habit from the human point of 
view is puncturing grapes and drinking the juice, and for this reason they 
are mercilessly hunted in grape-growing regions. They also eat figs, straw¬ 
berries and cherries. 


192 





American Museum of Natural History. 


BALTIMORE ORIOLES (Icterus galbula). Length: 7 y 2 
inches. Range: North America. 

While the female weaves the hanging cradle-like 
nest, the male bird seems content to fly about displaying 
his beautiful colors. American orioles are not related 
to the European species. 


CARDINAL (Cardinalis cardinalis). 
Length: 8 inches. Range: Eastern 
North America. 

This black-faced finch is fa¬ 
miliar to many as the “red bird.” 
Its brilliant cardinal red provides 
the fields and woodlands with 
startling patches of moving color. 



American Museum of Natural History. 






CONFERENCE. The Board of Directors of the Society of Stuffed Birds, as caught 
by the candid-camera, decide that bird stuffers and not birds should be stuffed. 
Chairman McCaw (rear center) now offers a resolution to petition humans to 
stop imitating parrots. Director Toucan (perched at his right) nods assent. 
Miss Amazon Parrot (at McCaw’s left) looks pleased while her brother, 
Mr. African Gray (standing in front), adds his vote in the affirmative. 


itatpu De bota, freat.iu Wrutrs' rroject. 


194 






INDEX 








INDEX 


Abyssinian ground hornbill, 154 
African ostrich, 18 

ALBATROSS GROUP: 

-description of order, 41 
-black-browed albatross, 43 
—Galapagos albatross, 43 
-petrel, 41 
-shearwater, 44 
-sooty albatross, 41 
-wandering albatross, 42 
—yellow-billed albatross, 41 
Amazon parrot, yellow-shouldered, 122 
American eagle, 82 
American flamingo, 64 
American hawk owl, 127 
American screech owl, 130 
Amherst pheasant, Lady, 91 
Andean condor, 77 
anis, 117 
auk, little, 36 
avocet, 105 

Baltimore oriole, 193 
barbets, 151 
barn owl, 127 
barred owl, 127 
bearded vulture, 79 


bee-eaters, 151 

belted kingfisher, 152 

bird of paradise, greater, 172 

BIRDS OF PREY: 

—description of order, 75 
—American eagle, 82 
-Andean condor, 77 
-bearded vulture, 79 
-Californian condor, 76 
-chicken hawk, 80 
—Cooper s hawk, 80 
—Indian vulture, 81 
—secretary bird, 78 
-turkey buzzard, 77 
bittern, least, 60 
blackbird, red-winged, 191 
black-browed albatross, 43 
blind owl, 127 
bluebird, 189 
blue jay, 168 
boat-billed heron, 58 
booby, white-bellied, 50 
bower bird, 170 
Brandt’s cormorant, 53 
broad-toed coots, 99 
brown crane, little, 101 
brown pelican, 48 


197 


budgerigars, 121 
bustard, 99 
bustard quail, 99 
buzzard, turkey, 77 

Californian condor, 76 
Canada goose, 70 
Cape penguin, 31 
cardinal, 193 
cariama, 99 
Carolina rail, 102 
carrier pigeon, 113 
cassique, crested, 164 
cassowary, common, 22 
cassowary, violet-necked, 23 
cedar waxwing, 178 
chickadee, 173 
chicken hawk, 80 
chimney swallows, 141 
chimney swift, 142 
cockatiels, 121 
cockatoos, 121 
Cocoi heron, 59 
colies, 147 

common cassowary, 22 
condor, Andean, 77 
condor, Californian, 76 
Cooper’s hawk, 80 
coots, broad-toed, 99 
cormorant, Brandt’s, 53 
cormorant, flightless, 53 
coursers, 105 
crab-eating plovers, 105 


CRANES and RAILS: 

-description of order, 99 
-bustard, 99 
-bustard quail, 99 
- cariamas, 99 
-Carolina rail, 102 
—coots, 99 

—demoiselle crane, 103 
—gallinules, 99 
—hemipodes, 99 
-kagus, 99 
-limpkins, 99 
-little brown crane, 101 
—monias, 99 
-roatelos, 99 
-sandhill crane, 100 
-sun-bitterns, 99 
-sun-grebes, 99 
-trumpeters, 99 
crested cassique, 164 
crocodile birds, 108 
crow, 166 

CUCKOOS: 

-description of order, 117 
-anis, 117 

-plantain-eaters, 117 
-road-runner, 119 
-yellow-billed cuckoo, 118 
curlew, 105 

demoiselle crane, 103 
divers, great northern, 34 


198 


DIVING BIRDS: 


FLIGHTLESS LAND BIRDS: 


-description of order, 33 
-great northern diver, 34 
—little auk, 36 
-western grebe, 38 
dodo, 113 
domestic fowl, 85 
domestic pigeons, 115 
double yellow-headed parrot, 123 
dove, mourning, 114 
duck, mallard, 68 

DUCKS, GEESE and SWANS: 

—description of order, 67 
-Canada geese, 70 
—horned screamer, 73 
—mallard ducks, 68 
—mute swan, 72 

eagle, American, 82 
eag le owls, 127 
eastern wild turkey, 96 
elf owl, 127 
emperor penguin, 30 
emu, 24 

English sparrow, 188 
European starlings, 182 
European white pelican, 49 

flamingo, American, 64 
flickers, 151 
flightless cormorant, 53 


—description of order, 17 
—cassowary, 22 
-elephant bird, 17 
-emu, 24 

—great-billed rhea, 20 
-kiwi, 26 
-moa, 17 
-roc, 17 

—South African ostrich, 18 
—tinamou, 27 

-violet-necked cassowary, 23 
—white rhea, 21 
frogmouth, 136 

Galapagos albatross, 43 
gallinule, 99 

GAME BIRDS: 

-description of order, 85 
-domestic fowl, 85 
—eastern wild turkey, 96 
-golden pheasant, 90 
-Indian peafowl, 92 
-jungle fowl, 94 
-Lady Amherst pheasant, 91 
-megapode, 86 
-partridge, 85 
-ptarmigan, 85 
—quail, 85 

-ring-necked pheasant, 91 
-ruffed grouse, 88 
gannets, 47 


199 


golden pheasant, 90 

goose, Canada, 70 

grackle, purple, 191 

great-billed rhea, 20 

great horned owl, 128 

great northern diver, 34 

greater bird of paradise, 172 

grebe, western, 38 

ground hornbill, Abyssinian, 154 

grouse, ruffed, 88 

gull, herring, 110 

gull, sea, 110 

hawk, chicken, 80 
hawk, Cooper’s, 80 
hawk owl, American, 127 
hemipode, 99 
heron, boat-billed, 58 
heron, Cocoi, 59 
herring gull, 110 
honey-guides, 151 
hoopoes, 151 

hornbill, Abyssinian ground, 154 
hornbill, lesser, 155 
horned owl, great, 128 
horned screamer, 73 
house wren, 174 
hummingbird, sword-billed, 144 

ibis, scarlet, 61 
ibis, wood, 65 
Indian peafowl, 92 
Indian vulture, 81 


jacamars, 151 

J AC AN AS, PLOVERS and GULLS: 

-description of order, 105 
-avocets, 105 
- coursers, 105 
-crab-eating plovers, 105 
-crocodile birds, 108 
-curlews, 105 
-herring gulls, 110 
-jaegers, 105 
—killdeer, 105 
—lapwings, 105 
-Mexican jacana, 106 
—oyster-catchers, 105 
-phalaropes, 105 
—pratincoles, 105 
—sandpipers, 105 
-seed-snipe, 105 
— sheath-bills , 105 
—skimmers, 105 
—skuas, 105 
-snipe, 105 
—stilts, 105 
-surf-birds, 105 
-terns, 105 
-thick-knees, 105 
—turnstones, 105 
—woodcock, 105 
jackass, laughing, 153 
jaegers, 105 
jay, blue, 168 
jungle fowl, 94 


200 


kagu, 99 
kakapos, 121 
kakas, 121 
keas, 121 
killdeer, 105 

KINGFISHERS, HORNBILLS, TOU¬ 
CANS and WOODPECKERS : 

-description of order, 151 
-Abyssinian ground hornbill, 154 
-barbets, 151 
-bee-eaters, 151 
-belted-kingfishers, 152 
-flickers, 151 
-honey-guides, 151 
-hoopoes, 151 
—jacamars, 151 
—laughing jackass, 153 
-lesser hornbill, 155 
—motmots, 151 
—piculets, 151 
-pileated woodpecker, 158 
-puff-birds, 151 
—rollers, 151 
-todies, 151 
—toucan, 156 
king penguin, 29 
kiwi, 26 

Lady Amherst pheasant, 91 
lapwing, 105 
laughing jackass, 153 
least bittern, 60 


lesser hornbill, 155 
limpkin, 99 
little auk, 36 
little brown crane, 101 
long-eared owls, 127 
lories, 121 
lorikeets, 121 
love-birds, 121 
lyre bird, 162 

macaw, 124 
mallard duck, 68 
man-o-war bird, 54 
marabou stork, 65 
megapode, 86 
Mexican jacana, 106 
moa, 17 
monia, 99 
mopoke, 136 
motmots, 151 
mourning dove, 114 
mute swan, 72 

nig ht-hawks, 133 
nightjars, 133 

North African ground hornbill, 154 
northern diver, great, 34 

OIL-BIRDS, FROGMOUTHS and 
WHIP-POOR-WILLS: 

-description of order, 133 
-frogmouth, 136 
-nighthawks, 133 


201 


-nightjars, 133 
-oil-bird, 134 
-owlet-jrogmoulh, 133 
— potoos, 133 
—whip-poor-will, 138 
oriole, Baltimore, 193 
ostrich, South African, 18 
owlet-frogmouth, 133 
owl-parrots, 121 

OWLS: 

-description of order, 127 
—American hawk owl, 127 
-barn owl, 127 
-barred owl, 127 
-blind owl, 127 
-eagle owl, 127 
-elf owl, 127 
—great horned owl, 128 
-long-eared owl, 127 
-Richardson s owl, 127 
-saw-whet owl, 127 
-screech owl, 130 
-short-eared owl, 127 
-snowy owl, 127 
—tawny owl, 127 
oyster-catchers, 105 

paradise, bird of, 172 
parakeets, 121 

PARROTS and MACAWS: 


—cockatiels, 121 
-cockatoos, 121 

—double yellow-headed parrot, 123 
-kakapos, 121 
-kakas, 121 
-keas, 121 
-lories, 121 
-lorikeets, 121 
-love-birds, 121 
-macaw, 124 
-parakeets, 121 
-pigmy parrot, 121 
—yellow-shouldered Amazon par¬ 
rot, 122 
partridge, 85 
passenger pigeon, 113 
peacock, white, 93 
peafowl, Indian, 92 

PELICAN GROUP: 

-description of order, 47 
Brandi’s cormorant, 53 
-brown pelican, 48 
—flightless cormorant, 53 
-man-o-war bird, 54 
-white-bellied booby, 50 
-white pelican, 49 


PENGUINS: 


-description of order, 121 
-budgerigars, 121 


202 


-description of order, 29 
-Cape penguin, 31 
-emperor penguin, 30 


-king, penguin, 29 
-rock hopper penguin, 29 

PERCHING BIRDS: 

—description of order, 161 
-Baltimore oriole, 193 
—bird of paradise, 172 
-blackbirds, 190 
-bluebird, 189 
-blue jay, 168 
-bower bird, 170 
-cardinal, 193 
—cedar waxwing, 178 
-chickadee, 173 
-crested cassique, 164 
-crow, 166 
-house wren, 174 
-lyre bird, 162 
-orioles, 192 
-purple grackle, 191 
-red-winged blackbird, 191 
-robin, 176 
-sparrow, 188 
-starlings, 182 
-thrushes, 176 
—vireos, 180 
-warblers, 184 
-weaver bird, 186 
petrel, 41 
phalarope, 105 
pheasant, golden, 90 
pheasant, Lady Amherst, 91 
pheasant, ring-necked, 91 
piculets, 151 


PIGEONS and DOVES: 

-description of order, 113 
—carrier pigeons, 113 
-dodo, 113 

—domestic pigeons, 115 
-mourning dove, 114 
-passenger pigeon, 113 
-solitaire, 113 
pigmy parrot, 121 
pileated woodpecker, 158 
plantain-eaters, 117 
plover, 108 
plover, turnstone, 105 
potoos, 133 
pratincoles, 105 
ptarmigan, 85 
puff-birds, 151 
purple grackle, 191 

quail, 85 
quetzal, 148 

rail, Carolina, 102 
red-eyed vireo, 180 
red-winged blackbird, 191 
rhea, great-billed, 20 
rhea, white, 21 
Richardson’s owl, 127 
ring-necked pheasant, 91 
road-runner, 119 
roatelo, 99 
robin, 176 
roc, 17 


203 


rock hopper penguin, 29 
rollers, 151 
ruffed grouse, 88 
rufous tinamou, 27 

sandhill crane, 100 
sandpiper, 105 
saw-whet owl, 127 
scarlet ibis, 61 
screamer, horned, 73 
screech owl, 130 
secretary bird, 78 
seed snipe, 105 
shearwater, 44 
sheath-bills, 105 
shoe-bill stork, 63 
short-eared owl, 127 
snipe, 105 
snowy owl, 127 
sooty albatross, 41 
South African ostrich, 18 
sparrow, English, 188 
squas, 105 

starlings, European, 182 
stilts, 105 
stork, marabou, 65 
stork, shoe-bill, 63 
stork, white, 62 
sun-bittern, 99 
sun-grebe, 99 
surf-birds, 105 
swallows, chimney, 141 
swan, mute, 72 


SWIFTS and HUMMINGBIRDS: 

-description of order , 141 
-chimney swallow, 141 
—chimney swift, 142 
-sword-billed hummingbird, 144 

tawny owls, 127 
terns, 105 
thick-knees, 105 
thrush, wood, 177 
tinamou, 27 
todies, 151 
toucan, 156 

TROGONS: 

-description of order, 147 
-colies, 147 
-quetzal, 148 
trumpeters, 99 
turkey buzzard, 77 
turkey, eastern wild, 96 
turnstone plover, 105 

violet-necked cassowary, 23 
vireo, red-eyed, 180 
vulture, bearded, 79 
vulture, Indian, 81 

WADING BIRDS: 

—description of order, 57 
-American flamingo, 64 
—boat-billed heron, 58 


204 


—Cocoi heron, 59 
-least bittern, 60 
—marabou stork, 65 
—scarlet ibis, 61 
-shoe-bill stork, 63 
-white stork, 62 
-wood ibis, 65 
wandering albatross, 42 
warbler, yellow-throated, 184 
waxwing, cedar, 178 
weaver bird, 186 
western grebe, 38 
whip-poor-will, 138 
white-bellied booby, 50 
white peacock, 93 


white pelican, 49 
white rhea, 21 
white stork, 62 
wild turkey, eastern, 96 
woodcock, 105 
wood ibis, 65 
woodpecker, pileated, 158 
wood thrush, 177 
wren, house, 174 

yellow-billed albatross, 41 
yellow-billed cuckoo, 118 
yellow-headed parrot, 123 
yellow-shouldered Amazon parrot, 122 
yellow-throated warbler, 184 


205 






MAP OF THE WORLD 



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EDITORIAL STAFF 


For the Federal Writers’ Project, New York City: 

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Alexis Chern, William F. Craig, Harry Davis, Robert Edwards, Milton 
Friedman, C. D. Harvey, Edward Malkin, Ralph Manheim, Joseph Rosner, 
Joseph Sigrist, Thomas Spencer, Clifford Sutcliffe, Aaron Trupin. 

For the Federal Art Project, New York City: 


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